‘Time for you to abandon the United States’: Asylum seekers who used app being told to leave

Migrants who were temporarily allowed to live in the United States by using an online appointment app have been told to leave the country “immediately,” officials said Monday. It was unclear how many beneficiaries would be affected. 

More than 900,000 people were allowed in the country using the CBP One app since January 2023. The CBP One was a cornerstone of Joe Biden administration’s strategy to create and expand legal pathways to enter the U.S. in an attempt to discourage illegal border crossings or people arriving en masse at the southern border after making a perilous journey through Central America.

Those accepted into the U.S. via the app were generally allowed to remain in the country for two years with authorization to work under a presidential authority called parole. 

“Cancelling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect national security,” the Department of Homeland Security media affairs unit said in response to questions. 

Authorities confirmed termination notices were sent to CBP One beneficiaries but did not say how many. They were urged to voluntary self-deport using the same app they entered on, which has been renamed CBP Home.

“It’s time for you to abandon the United States,” the Department of Homeland Security wrote to a Honduran family that entered the U.S. at the end of 2024. The Associated Press reviewed the email received Sunday. 

Others shared the same email on social media platforms. 

More expansive use of fines plotted

By the end of December, 936,500 people had been allowed to enter with CBP One appointments at border crossings with Mexico. President Donald Trump ended CBP One for new entrants on his first day in office, stranding thousands in Mexico who had appointments into early February. 

Homeland Security said Monday that Biden’s use of parole authority — more than any president since it was created in 1952 — “further fuelled the worst border crisis in U.S. history.” 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration plans to fine migrants under deportation orders up to $998 US a day if they fail to leave the U.S. and to seize their property if they do not pay, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. 

The Trump administration is also considering seizing the property of immigrants who do not pay the fines, according to government emails reviewed by Reuters.

In response to questions from Reuters, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that immigrants in the U.S. illegally should use the rebranded CBP One — now known as CBP Home under Trump — to “self deport and leave the country now.”

“If they don’t, they will face the consequences,” McLaughlin said. “This includes a fine of $998 US per day for every day that the illegal alien overstayed their final deportation order.” DHS warned of the fines in a March 31 social media post.

The fines stem from a 1996 law that was enforced for the first time in 2018, during Trump’s first term in office. He invoked the law to levy fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars against nine migrants seeking sanctuary in churches. The administration withdrew the penalties, but then proceeded with smaller fines of about $60,000 US per person against at least four of the migrants, according to court records. 

President Biden stopped issuing the fines and rescinded related policies when he took office in 2021.

Scott Shuchart, a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy official under Biden, said migrants and their supporters could challenge the fines in court but that the threat alone could have a chilling effect.

“Their point isn’t really to enforce the law, it’s to project fear in communities,” he said.

The immigration advocacy group FWD.us estimates that some 10 million migrants with no legal status or temporary protections are living with U.S. citizens or permanent residents in what are known as “mixed status households.”