Breaking: DHS Retools CBP One App to Encourage Illegal Immigrants to ‘Leave Now and Self-Deport’

The Department of Homeland Security is now encouraging illegal immigrants to self-deport with a new version of the defunct CBP One app, which the Biden administration used to facilitate the entry of more than 1 million aliens.

The revamped CBP Home app includes a “Submit Intent to Depart” feature that allows illegal immigrants to voluntarily leave the country instead of getting deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. After notifying their intent to leave, users can verify their departure. The app was rolled out on Monday.

"The CBP Home app gives aliens the option to leave now and self-deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement before delivering a stern message. “If they don't, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return."

On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump immediately ended the use of the controversial app to parole illegal immigrants.

Since then, the Trump administration has moved to crack down on illegal immigration through a strong military presence at the southern border and a massive deportation operation intended to remove more than 1 million aliens, including violent criminals, admitted to the U.S. under the Biden administration.

In recent weeks, however, Trump and border czar Tom Homan have been unhappy with the deportation effort’s slow pace. In response, administration officials have increased pressure on immigration authorities to ramp up the mass deportations.

The administration’s frustrations culminated in former acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello’s reassignment last month. Noem named Todd Lyons, former acting executive associate director of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations, as Vitello’s replacement on Monday.

While Trump is taking a much more hawkish stance on illegal immigration, his administration’s deportation efforts were lower in February, compared to the same time last year under his predecessor. ICE deported about 11,000 immigrants last month, while over 12,000 were deported in February 2024.

The relative drop in deportations is likely due to the fact that far fewer illegal immigrants have entered the country over the southern border in recent months.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s encounters along the border are the lowest they have been in 25 years, and the agency apprehended roughly 200 aliens on a single day last month. Biden’s CBP recorded more than 8,000 apprehensions in a single day. The CBP One app’s shutdown was an important factor in the decrease.

Also, Trump’s DHS revoked the Biden-era temporary protected status designations for 500,000 Haitians and 600,000 Venezuelans that allowed foreign nationals to live in the U.S. instead of their home countries. Shortly after taking office, the president targeted a humanitarian parole program that allowed up to 30,000 people per month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti to enter the U.S.

Last week, Trump said he is considering whether to revoke temporary protected status for 240,000 Ukrainians who fled to the U.S. following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He has not made a final decision on this yet, as the White House continues mediating to end the Russia-Ukraine war.