TINY TAKE-UP

Eye-Watering Cost of ICE Barbie’s Failing Self-Deportation App Revealed

DHS spent $200 million on ads for a self-deportation app used by just 35,000 people, new figures show.

The Department of Homeland Security’s self-deportation drive is costing U.S. taxpayers about $7,500 per departure, as relatively few people use its trumpeted CBP Home app, according to The Atlantic.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, 54—dubbed ICE Barbie for her camera-ready ICE raid photo-ops and glam cosplay—rolled out Project Homecoming in the spring with a government advertising blitz costing more than $200 million.

But DHS has struggled to drive sign-ups for CBP Home, with its promise of a free flight plus $1,000 cash to those who “self-deport,” data show.

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Internal DHS figures obtained by The Atlantic show that the app has produced roughly 35,000 exits in nine months. This, the outlet says, amounts to a cost of $7,500 per exit, when the ad costs, airfare, and bonuses are included.

According to The Atlantic, citing DHS’ own math, this means only 2 percent of people who left of their own accord used CBP Home—with the vast majority simply slipping away without the government ticket or $1,000 bonus.

Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Atlantic that Project Homecoming provides “a smooth, efficient process for illegal aliens to return home,” adding that “tens of thousands” have left via the CBP Home app.

A DHS spokesperson told the Daily Beast that the average cost of a self-deportation using the CBP Home is “around $3,500,” which they said was an 80 percent saving compared to the “average $17,000 cost to arrest, detain, and remove an illegal alien through a deportation.”

Immigration analyst Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council said the figures show the multimillion-dollar blitz isn’t working.

“Good to get some hard data on this,” he wrote on X, reflecting that DHS rarely releases to the public tangible figures. He added that “35,000 is not a particularly high number.

“It suggests that the Trump admin’s multimillion-dollar ad campaign is not paying off.”

The White House’s goal is 1 million deportations a year. DHS claims it is beating the White House removal goal, with 1.6 million immigrants voluntarily leaving since Donald Trump returned to office in January.

If the 1.6 million self-deportations figure is to be believed, The Atlantic reported that the drop in America’s foreign-born population would be the largest ever recorded.

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The figure, according to the magazine, appears to rely on a Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) estimate derived from the Census Bureau’s monthly Current Population Survey, which showed a 2.2 million decline in the foreign-born population from January to July.

Speaking to The Atlantic, CIS researcher Steven Camarota attributed about three-quarters of that change to self-deportations, but he and other analysts cautioned that the data are preliminary pending fuller census releases.

Camarota called the declines “unprecedented” and said they warrant skepticism, pointing to sector surveys in construction and hospitality that show rising quit rates among immigrant workers.

Reflecting on The Atlantic’s report, Reichlin-Melnick said of a separate graphic posted by the administration, which claimed 1.9 million had self-deported, “This... is either made up or more likely improperly calculated from the Current Population Survey.”

Spending on the advertising blitz has also triggered conflict-of-interest questions.

Four senators, led by Gary Peters, asked the DHS inspector general on Nov. 20 to probe whether “emergency” authorities were misused to steer contracts tied to senior officials.

That request followed a ProPublica investigation that found that a subcontractor on the $220 million ad push was Strategy Group, run by Benjamin Yoho, the husband of McLaughlin, DHS’ most senior communications official.

Lawmakers now want the IG to review emergency contracting, conflict checks, and competition rules. DHS and McLaughlin deny any wrongdoing.

The Daily Beast has contacted DHS for comment.

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Tom LatchemLead Global Correspondent

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