The Trump administration discontinued the use of CBP One, an app that allowed migrants to legally request asylum in the United States and allowed for the legal entry of nearly one million people into the United States with eligibility to work.
Shortly after Donald Trump was sworn in, a notice on the Customs and Border Protection website announced that the app, which allowed migrants to schedule appointments at eight southwest border ports of entry, was no longer available. The notice also stated that all existing appointments had been canceled.
BREAKING: It’s official. The Trump administration has canceled the CBP One cell phone app parole program used by Biden to allow more than 900,000 migrants to enter the US. Existing appointments have been cancelled. This is the notice on CBP website. Term undocumented alien used. pic.twitter.com/CdMXX8i6Rn
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) January 20, 2025
Trump's nominee to be the next Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, had previously promised to shut down the App on her first day in office when answering a question from Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who called the App "concierge service for illegals," and said it allowed them to "apply ahead of time using their phone but not provide evidence that they need asylum."
"I will shut down CBP One on day one.," Noem said. "There is data and information we will preserve so we know who is coming into the country and who is already there and we need to go find."
The decision to close the App aligns with promises made by Trump during the campaign trail when he referred to CBP One as "a phone app for smuggling illegals":
As President I will immediately end the migrant invasion of America. We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal entries, terminate the Kamala phone app for smuggling illegals (CBP One App), revoke deportation immunity, suspend refugee resettlement, and return Kamala’s…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 15, 2024
The CBP One App also came under fire in August for its failure to check the backgrounds of those using it in a report from an internal watchdog within the Department of Homeland Security titled "CBP Did Not Thoroughly Plan for CBP One Risks, and Opportunities to Implement Improvements Exist."
The report pointed out that the app cannot properly check the information of migrants, who claim a U.S. address as their intended destination. An analysis of the CBP One data found that some unrelated migrants repeatedly listed the same U.S. address. It also stated that CBP lacks a system to regularly analyze data from the app across different points of entry. Such analysis could provide valuable information to help CBP officers during their interviews with migrants.
Originally published on Latin Times
