Border Patrol does not pay for migrants’ flights, despite Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claim

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not meet CNN’s national polling and ballot requirements to be on the June 27 debate stage along President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. But that didn’t stop Kennedy from weighing in on some of the topics Biden and Trump discussed.

Kennedy held a parallel event that night, an X livestream, on which he answered questions from his own event moderator, John Stossel, a former ABC News and Fox News journalist.

In the CNN debate, host Jake Tapper asked Trump how he would carry out the largest deportation operation in American history — a promise Trump has repeated throughout the campaign. 

Stossel, around the time of that debate question, asked Kennedy a similar question.

"There are millions of undocumented immigrants in the country now. What would you do?" Stossel asked. 

Kennedy started his answer saying Democrats’ immigration policy might have been intended to be compassionate, but has become exploited by cartels who extort, kidnap and rape migrants.

He added: "The Border Patrol takes, because they've been ordered not to do their job. You know, catch and release. They bring them to the Yuma, (Arizona,) airport, put them on a plane to any destination they want. This is true, it sounds like hyperbole but it's not. And they pay their ticket. And then they get reimbursement from FEMA."

There is no evidence that Border Patrol has been ordered to not do its job, federal data shows Border Patrol agents detain and deport migrants crossing the border every month. Is Kennedy’s claim true that Border Patrol gives out free plane tickets to migrants and gets reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency? 

"Border Patrol does not participate in coordinating migrant’s onward movement, nor does the agency receive FEMA funding," said Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, associate policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

Immigration experts, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection also have previously told PolitiFact that immigration officials do not pay for immigrants’ travel.

Kennedy's campaign did not respond to our request for comment. 

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talks during a campaign event, in West Hollywood, Calif., June 27, 2024. (AP)

After people cross the border illegally, Border Patrol decides whether to release them into the U.S. to await immigration court proceedings, detain or deport them. These decisions hinge on considerations including the government’s resources, the migrants’ country of origin and whether the migrants are traveling with children. 

Migrants must pay for their own flights or other transportation after they’ve been released from immigration custody. They could get assistance from nonprofits that seek to help migrants who recently arrived in the U.S. But federal immigration officers do not provide them financial assistance, including plane tickets, the Department of Homeland Security told PolitiFact.

"There is no truth whatsoever to the claim that Border Patrol are paying for migrants’ plane tickets from Yuma. Border Patrol’s role ends whenever a migrant is released," Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, an immigrant rights advocacy group, said. "They do not arrange for transportation onwards, nor do they purchase any plane tickets for anyone."

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The federal government arranges flights for some migrants, but in specific scenarios: when the migrants are being taken to a detention center or deported out of the country.

The government also arranges flights for minors who crossed the border alone, because under the law, border officials cannot hold children who arrive at the border without a parent or guardian longer than 72 hours. So, CBP transfers them to Department of Health and Human Services custody. That department then transports the children, often by plane, to family members in the U.S. or licensed shelters. 

This sort of arranged travel isn’t unique to the Biden administration, it also happened under Trump’s presidency.

FEMA has two programs that give money to local governments and nonprofit organizations that shelter and feed migrants. Both programs list allowable expenses for which nonprofits can receive funding or reimbursement.

One type of assistance, the Shelter and Services Program, lets nonprofits and local governments ask FEMA to cover migrants’ transportation costs — from a shelter to their final destination.

FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program also allowed these entities to get funding for migrants’ transportation, such as taxi, plane or bus tickets — if money remains after other eligible expenses for migrant assistance are paid. (The program ended in fiscal year 2023. Funding for immigration services now falls entirely under the Shelter and Services Program.)

It’s unclear how much FEMA funding has gone toward migrants’ transportation services. FEMA publishes the amount provided to each organization and local government, but it does not break down how much money goes to each service. 

FEMA has been reimbursing nonprofits for their services to migrants for years. Trump’s administration requested Emergency Food and Shelter Program funding to go to migrant support services in 2019 during an uptick in immigration apprehensions. 

In 2023, Congress began the Shelter and Services Program amid record-high immigration encounters under Biden.

DHS coordinates with nonprofits "to avoid, to the greatest extent possible, releasing noncitizens directly into border communities without immediate support," a 2023 report from the Government Accountability Office said.

Most immigrants pay for their own travel, nonprofit officials interviewed by the Government Accountability Office said

Michael DeBruhl, a retired Border Patrol agent, and the director of the Sacred Heart Church shelter in El Paso, Texas, said that as far as he knows, shelters in his area generally don’t buy travel tickets for migrants, barring extreme need or special circumstances. 

About 90% of the migrants his shelter serves, DeBruhl said, "either purchase fares on their own, or through their sponsors," such as friends or family.

Kennedy said Border Patrol agents take migrants "to the Yuma airport, put them on a plane to any destination they want. ... And they pay their ticket. And then they get reimbursement from FEMA."

DHS told PolitiFact that it does not give immigrants who cross the border illegally free plane tickets. 

DHS pays for the flights of people it’s deporting out of the country or moving among detention centers. Under the law, the Department of Health and Human Services also pays for the transportation, including flights, of children who are traveling alone to reunite them with family members in the U.S. or send them to licensed U.S. shelters. 

FEMA gives money to nonprofit organizations and local governments that help immigrants. Transportation services are eligible under the programs. But FEMA does not reimburse Border Patrol. 

We rate Kennedy’s statement False.