The United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency has launched an app with a novel feature that allows people deemed to be in the country unlawfully to deport themselves.
Although the word "deport" isn't used in the CBP Home app, the agency says the feature, Intent to Depart, "offers unlawfully present aliens or those aliens whose parole has been revoked an orderly and defined voluntary process to notify the US government of their intent to depart the United States."
The feature is a necessary tool, CBP said, to comply with US president Donald Trump's executive order named "Protecting the American People Against Invasion".
Trump campaigned on mass deportation of migrants during the US presidential election.
CBP Home replaces the earlier CBP One app released by the Biden administration, that allowed people to schedule an appointment to apply for entry into the United States, at a legal border crossing. The CBP One app was cancelled by the Trump administration in January.
DHS offers a carrot to migrants using CBP Home, by saying the self-deportation feature will not preclude them from applying for return to the US afterwards.
Senator Kristi Noem, who is the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, made the app's intended use clear in a statement:
“The Biden Administration exploited the CBP One app to allow more than 1 million aliens to illegally enter the United States. With the launching of the CBP Home app, we are restoring integrity to our immigration system.
“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. If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return.”
DHS also said the CBP Home will save taxpayer dollars, and allow US border agencies to focus their resources on dangerous criminal aliens.
Despite the new feature in the app, it appears that self-deportation from the US was possible prior to CBP Home, with undocumented migrants not being stopped at the border upon their departure.
CBP Home does have other features as well, such as applying for I-94 visitor visas, perishable cargo inspections, border wait times checks and submissions of manifests for bus operators.
The app is free, and can be downloaded from Google Play for Android smartphones, and Apple App Store for iPhones and iPads.
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