Inside Donald Trump’s Self-Deportation Crisis
Under the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security has launched a $200 million ad campaign calling on immigrants to self-deport. These moves have already torn apart communities and rallied far-right extremists.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents walk down a street during a targeted enforcement operation in Chicago, Illinois, on Sunday, January 26, 2025. (Christopher Dilts / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Customs and Border Protection’s Home app, complete with a “self-deportation reporting feature” for undocumented migrants who plan to leave the United States. It’s a repurposed version of the CBP One app, which the Biden administration had used to process asylum claims from people waiting at the US-Mexico border.
According to DHS, the old app will automatically update to the new version, which it noted is “also available free across mobile application stores.” It’s part of a $200 million ad campaign announced in February, telling migrants they will be “hunted down and deported” unless they “leave now,” which DHS says may give them “an opportunity to return and enjoy our freedom and live the American Dream.”
For now, it is unclear how these reports will be used, or how the Trump administration plans to convince people to use the app, as voluntary departures are not otherwise recorded by migration authorities. It is also unclear how authorities plan to use the information. But Bindhu Vijayan, the executive director of Beyond Legal Aid, which operates on a community-activism-lawyering model, described the app as misleading.