“Easy way, or hard way,” Trump touts self-deportation app

President Trump released a video Wednesday promoting Customs and Border Protection’s new “self-deport” app function, taking a carrots-and-sticks approach in his pitch to illegal immigrants.

“People in our country illegally can self-deport the easy way or they can get deported the hard way and that’s not pleasant,” Trump, 78, warned in a 90-second clip touting the modified CBP Home app.

The Department of Homeland Security rolled out the retooled app earlier this month to help illegal immigrants self-deport. The launch came weeks after the Trump administration ended the Biden-era CPB One app that allowed migrants at the border to pursue legal pathways into the US.

Should illegal immigrants take advantage of the self-deport option, Trump said they may be allowed to enter the country legally at some point down the line. This possibility of being allowed into the country in the future if one as an illegal self deports, could be the carrot that incentivizes a movement of self-deportations.

“If they do, they could potentially have the opportunity to return legally at some point in the future,” Trump said. “If they do not avail themselves of this opportunity, then they will be found, they will be deported,” he added. “And they will never be admitted again to the United States — ever, ever again. You’re never coming in.”

Republicans in Congress are drafting legislation intended to marshal tens of billions of dollars worth of resources for border security, but that legislation is expected to take at least a few weeks to get passed.

Encounters at the southwest border have taken a nosedive under the Trump administration, plummeting to 11,709 last month, compared to 189,913 during February of 2024, according to data from US Customs and Border Patrol.

Illegal immigration has clearly been stifled by the Trump administration’s strong approach to the matter, but the next step is increasing the amount of illegals being deported. President Trump, whose second term has been like no other before it, is trying every idea to get that to happen.