The Trump administration has revealed a repurposed app that will allow immigrants in the US without legal status to identify themselves and “self-deport” rather than risk arrest and detention. The renamed application, announced Monday and now called CBP Home, is part of the Trump White House’s campaign to encourage “self-deportations”. It’s being touted as an easy and cost-effective way to nudge along President Donald Trump’s push to deport millions of immigrants without legal status.
Pete Flores, the acting commissioner for U.S Customs and Border Protection, said in a statement: “The app provides illegal aliens in the United States with a straightforward way to declare their intent to voluntarily depart, offering them the chance to leave before facing harsher consequences.” Trump, 78, had promised to deport millions of immigrants as he campaigned for a second term in major clampdown on the country’s asylum policies.
Just hours after he returned to the White House in January, the app stopped allowing migrants to apply for asylum, and tens of thousands of border appointments were cancelled, as per AP.
More than 900,000 people were allowed in the country on immigration parole under CBP One, generally for two years, starting in January 2023.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on X: “The CBP Home app gives aliens the option to leave now and self deport [sic], so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream.
“If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return.”
Some people living in the US illegally chose to leave even before Trump’s inauguration amid his fiery anti-immigration rhetoric, though it’s unclear how many.
Over 900,000 people were allowed in the country on immigration parole under CBP One, generally for two years, starting in January 2023, as per AP.
The app replaced the previous version on app stores today and is the latest attempt from Trump to pile pressure on immigrants without legal status to leave the US.
A regulation is also set to take effect on April 11 requiring them to register with the federal government or face the possibility of fines or jail time, as per Reuters.
U.S Customs and Border Protection has been approached for more information about how the “self-deportation” system would work.