The Donald Trump administration is offering migrant children as young as five years old $3,000 to leave the United States voluntarily, a move that has raised concerns among immigration lawyers and child advocacy groups over the potential impact on minors facing immigration proceedings.
According to a report by Bloomberg Law, the financial incentive is being presented to children appearing before immigration courts. In some cases, attorneys representing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have reportedly raised the offer, while immigration judges have also outlined voluntary departure as an option.
The initiative marks an expansion of an earlier programme introduced by the administration in 2025, which offered $2,500 to unaccompanied migrant children aged 14 and above. The revised offer has reportedly increased to $3,000 and now extends to children below the age of 14, including those who may not fully understand the legal implications of agreeing to leave the country.
The development has prompted concerns among organisations representing migrant children, particularly over whether minors are being given adequate legal assistance before making decisions that could affect their immigration status and future protection claims.
Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice, said the organisation had received reports over the preceding month from lawyers and court observers across the country about young children being presented with the financial offer. Some of the children were reportedly not represented by lawyers when the option was discussed.
Aber expressed concern that the approach could place additional pressure on vulnerable minors to withdraw their immigration cases rather than continue pursuing legal remedies in the US. Michael Lukens, executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights in Washington, said his organisation and other legal aid groups had received emails from ICE attorneys offering children $3,000 in exchange for accepting voluntary departure.
One reported instance involved an offer made to an 11-year-old client during the week before the report was published. Immigration advocates have questioned whether children can make informed decisions about leaving the country when they are offered money while their cases remain pending.
They have also raised concerns about the ability of minors to understand the long-term consequences of accepting such an arrangement without independent legal advice.
Voluntary departure can have significant implications for a migrant’s immigration case. Depending on the circumstances, leaving the US could affect a child’s ability to pursue asylum or other forms of humanitarian protection. Advocates say access to qualified legal representation is therefore particularly important when children are asked to consider such an option. The reported expansion comes amid broader efforts by the Trump administration to accelerate immigration proceedings involving unaccompanied minors.
These are children who enter the US without a parent or legal guardian and may be placed in government-run shelters while authorities arrange family reunification or other appropriate placements. Access to legal assistance has also emerged as a major concern following the lapse of federal funding for the Acacia Center for Justice and other organisations providing legal services to migrant children in July.
The funding disruption has raised questions about whether vulnerable minors can obtain adequate representation as their cases move through the immigration system. More than 16,500 cases involving unaccompanied children were pending before US immigration courts as of July, according to data from the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review.
Separately, Bloomberg Law reported that supervisors within the immigration court system had directed judges to restrict continuances, or postponements of hearings, to 21 days for children who entered the country without a parent or guardian.
Such delays are sometimes requested to allow minors additional time to find a lawyer, prepare their cases or submit asylum applications. The $3,000 incentive also resembles an existing federal initiative encouraging eligible migrants to leave the US voluntarily through the Customs and Border Protection agency’s CBP Home application.
However, immigration lawyers told Bloomberg Law that they had not previously encountered the financial offer being extended during immigration court proceedings to children under 14. The expansion has intensified the debate over the administration’s approach to voluntary departures, particularly when children are involved.
While the programme is presented as an option for migrants to leave the country, advocacy groups have questioned whether young applicants can make a genuinely informed choice when facing ongoing legal proceedings and potentially limited access to independent legal representation.
