Photo: Alamy
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned illegal immigrants on Tuesday to self-deport or face consequences.
Leavitt’s warning came as she revealed the Trump administration’s efforts to use the CBP App used by the Biden administration to enter the country as a tool for illegal immigrants to leave the U.S.
“The CBP Home app strengthens our mission to secure the border and provides illegal aliens with a straightforward way to leave now before facing much harder consequences later,” Leavitt stated.
“CBP launched an enhanced home mobile app with a new feature: the intent to depart, which offers unlawfully present aliens, or those aliens whose parole has been revoked, an orderly and defined process to notify the U.S. government to depart the country,” Leavitt added.
The CBP One App has been renamed the CBP Home App, a statement announced Monday.
“The Biden Administration exploited the CBP One App to allow more than 1 million aliens to illegally enter the United States,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.
“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,” Noem continued. “If they don’t, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return.”
Noem also announced plans last month to launch a registry for illegal immigrants, including fines or prison for those who refuse.
The registry will include children 14 and older to be fingerprinted and supply personal information, according to a memo reported in The Wall Street Journal.
“Aliens in this country illegally face a choice,” Noem wrote in a memo, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. “They can return home and follow the legal process to come to the United States or they can deal with the consequences of continuing to violate our laws.”
The initiative is part of a broader effort by Trump to curb illegal immigration through mass deportations and stricter border security measures. Under the new policy, those who qualify but fail to register could face fines of up to $5,000 and a maximum prison sentence of six months.