The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), at President Donald Trump’s direction, has released a new Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) ‘Home’ Application.
The CBP Home App is designed to facilitate illegal immigrants’ voluntary departure from the US.
Illegal immigrants who voluntarily depart the US will still be eligible to return to the US through the standard legal immigration processes.
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“The CBP Home app gives illegal aliens the option to self-deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream,” said DHS. “If they don’t, we will find them, and we will deport them.”
Under former President Joe Biden, many immigrants’ entry to the US was accelerated thanks to a different application, the CBP One app.
Conservatives had criticized the CBP One app, claiming it was harnessed by President Biden to enable the influx of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants.
The ‘One’ app permitted migrants who would have otherwise entered the US illegally to enter the U.S. through the southwest border with the potential to temporarily work and reside legally.
Once inside the US, claimed conservatives, the US government would struggle to track the migrants and the migrants would have no incentive to depart if their legal immigration applications were rejected.
President Trump ran on reversing many of Biden’s immigration policies, including the CBP One app’s use.
“The Biden administration exploited the CBP One App, to allow more than one million aliens to illegally enter the US,” said Trump. “Now, my administration is launching the CBP Home app, to give people in our country illegally an easy way to leave now and self-deport, so they may have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream.”
According to DHS, illegal border crossings have hit historical lows since Trump assumed office.
From February 2024 to February 2025, DHS reports a 94% decrease in southwest border encounters.
Trump warned illegal immigrants to leave the US “the easy way, or get deported the hard way.”
