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The Trump Administration is set to repurpose CBP Home, an app originally intended to facilitate asylum appointments, in order to allow undocumented migrants to ‘self-deport.’
The Trump Administration has announced it will be reconfiguring an app called CBP Home to provide undocumented migrants a way to ‘self-report.’ US Customs and Bored Patrol says that this will be a way for individuals to leave the country without facing ‘harsher consequences.’
US officials suggested that undocumented migrants should leave voluntarily, rather than via alternative means such as arrest.
The White House has laid out plans to significantly overhaul the US immigration system, with promises of mass detentions. The rebranding of the CBP Home app – a tool originally intended by the Biden administration to protect asylum seekers – reflects this attitude change from government under Trump.
The CBP Home app was originally launched in 2020. It was first designed to reduce detentions at the border and provide extra support for those making the dangerous journey to the US.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement that migrants who self-deport via the app ‘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,’ she said.
According to the BBC, there are no specific details as of yet on how this will actually work in real terms. The app asks migrants whether they have ‘enough money to depart the United States,’ and whether they have a ‘valid, unexpired passport from your original country of citizenship.’
The CBP Home app can also be used to apply and pay for I-94 entry and exit cards up to seven days before travel. Users can book inspections and check wait times at US border crossings.
However, experts say that this new registration system will ‘face hurdles’ and as difficult to enforce. It relies on a lot of good will and compliance from undocumented migrants, at least for the time being. We’ve no specifics on how this harsh government rhetoric will play our in real time.
