The Trump administration's Department of Homeland Security snuck a damning detail into its latest plea for immigrants to self-deport to their home countries, according to one lawyer.
On Thursday, DHS General Counsel James Percival posted a clip from "The Wizard of Oz" where Dorothy claps her red heels together and says, "There's no place like home." The DHS logo was placed over Glinda the Good Witch's face in the clip. Percival captioned the clip by writing, "$3,000 and a flight home is the deal of a lifetime. Leave on your own terms. There truly is no place like home!"
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an immigration lawyer, noted in a post on X that Percival's post included an "interesting" detail.
"This is an interesting way to announce that @DHS is desperate enough that they've increased the CBP Home amount from $2,600 to $3,000, which is triple the original $1,000 offered in 2025 after Trump took office," he wrote, adding that DHS had "quietly" upped the payment on September 1.
The Trump administration has tried to scale up a massive deportation regime throughout the president's second term. However, legal battles have hampered these maneuvers. Immigration agents have also reportedly arrested a growing number of U.S. citizens despite DHS' alleged aim to seek out the "worst of the worst" criminals, according to reports.