Using the Border Patrol Home App to Get Illegal Aliens to Self Deport

So far, poetic justice seems the theme of this political year. And there’s nothing more poetically just or ironic than what the Donald Trump administration just did: Turned an app used to mass parole millions of aliens into an app to help those aliens leave the U.S.

In October 2020, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol launched the CBP One mobile application to help commercial trucking companies schedule cargo inspections at land ports of entry. Starting Jan. 20, 2021, the Biden administration deliberately opened U.S. borders and encouraged mass migration—causing a rapid increase in the number of illegal aliens encountered by CBP.

Following December 2022’s then-historic high of over 302,000 inadmissible alien nationwide encounters, the Biden administration rolled out its shell game. In January 2023, then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that rather than illegally cross the border between ports of entry, illegal aliens should instead use the revamped CBP One app to make an appointment at a port of entry.

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In other words, rather than promoting the legal means of immigration (via the lawful visa application process or the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program), Mayorkas instructed aliens to use the CBP app to schedule their illegal entry.

Mayorkas called this a “lawful pathway” to immigration, explaining that the DHS would parole these aliens. But his actions violated every statutory requirement of immigration parole and ignored lawful means of immigration.

Soon after this rollout, the number of inadmissible alien encounters at ports of entry quickly increased until they exceeded the number of alien encounters between ports of entry. Mayorkas used this to claim that “border numbers” had dropped, shell game complete.

On Trump’s first day back in office, he reversed this, ordered an end to both mass parole programs and to the Biden administration’s twisted use of the CBP One app.

But rather than terminate the platform entirely, CBP instead repurposed the app to achieve a new goal—increasing deportations.

Earlier this week, DHS announced that all CBP One apps will be automatically replaced with the newly launched “CBP Home” app, which will also be available across app stores. The new app includes a self-deport reporting feature for illegal aliens in the country.

To submit intent to depart the U.S. on the CBP Home mobile app, the alien takes a selfie on the app, fills out biographic information, and answers questions on whether they have a valid, unexpired passport and enough money to depart. But CBP should go a step further and require aliens to share their GPS location when they claim to leave the U.S., so their departure can be verified.

This would help solve yet another problem—the decades-old biometric exit requirement.

Congress has required a biometric entry-exit system ever since the Sept. 11 Commission Report recommended it in 2004 because of the time and resources the government had wasted trying to track down aliens of interest after the terrorist attacks.

This biometric requirement makes sense: after all, it’s important for a sovereign nation to know who enters the country, when, why, and whether and when they leave. But CBP efforts to implement biometric exit have been lagging.

The new CBP Home app may put the agency one version away from actually being able to comply efficiently with the biometric exit requirement.

This app may also help mitigate a larger problem facing the administration. Trump had promised to mass-deport the millions here illegally, but he has limited resources available to do so.

Ultimately, Congress can solve this issue by increasing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s resources so the administration can carry out what Americans voted for. But the administration is also acting by encouraging illegal aliens to leave the U.S. on their own accord–largely via removal of benefits like work authorization, welfare programs, and universal birthright citizenship.

The administration is also communicating that if illegal aliens self-deport, they can return to the U.S. lawfully to resume their lives and pursue America’s many opportunities. Yet if illegal aliens refuse to leave and DHS has to spend taxpayer money to locate and deport them, they will be barred from returning to America.

The Trump administration’s rollout of the new CBP app is a needed step in the right direction. Under Trump, it’s not CBP One—it’s CBP Gone.

Originally published by The Washington Times.