Over the four years of the Biden administration, Americans had to endure a litany of government excuses as to why the illegal immigration problem could not be solved.

Before we could think about border enforcement, we had to fix the “root causes” of mass migration in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Then we were toldit was simply impossible to find all the illegal aliens in the United States. And, in perhaps the richest excuse from an administration that spent untold billions of dollars on so many wasteful initiatives, they claimed deporting those here illegally would simply cost too much.

Make no mistake: Finding, apprehending, and deporting millions of illegal aliens is not a cheap proposition. What the previous administration failed to tell us, however, was that turning off the spigot of lavish welfare benefits to illegal aliens and enforcing the immigration laws on the books would result in a most cost-effective outcome: Illegal aliens self-deporting before the U.S. government had to go to all the trouble.

It is still early in the second Trump presidency of course, so there is little hard data on the full scope of self-deportation. However, there is a preponderance of anecdotal evidence that self-deportation is happening.

In the weeks prior to Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, News Nation reported that self-deportation was becoming a “trend” among illegals wanting to avoid arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). PBS covered the pre-inauguration exodus, saying that “self-deportation helps Trump to achieve his goals without the government having to spend or do anything.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), one of the most vocal anti-borders activists in Congress, recently lost a staff deputy from Ecuador who was here illegally to self-deportation.

Consistent with the aggressive pace of President Trump’s first months back in office, he is not taking a passive role on the question of self-deportation. At a recent congressional hearing, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and retired ICE field office director John Fabbricatore discussed transforming the infamous CBP One mobile app, designed as a tool for facilitating illegal entry into the country, into a vehicle to expedite self-deportation instead. A few days later, the White House announced it was redesigning CBP One into CBP Home, an app to facilitate self-deportation.

The Biden White House touted the CBP One phone app in 2023 as a solution to turn “irregular migration,” i.e. illegal immigration, into “regular” immigration. The idea was that migrants could first use the app to submit photos and information prior to reaching the border, then use it to schedule an appointment with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials at a port of entry.

To make the CBP One app the standard in border processing, the Biden team also issued a rule that migrants who cross the border illegally and fail to use the app would be ineligible for asylum. The stated purpose was to reduce the chaos at the border caused by the more than 10 million illegal border crossings during Biden’s term.

While the program may have created the superficial appearance of less chaos at the border, the result was still tens of thousands of noncitizens being admitted into the United States every month.

Since CBP One’s rollout in January 2023 through April 2024, more than 591,000 migrants used it to schedule appointments at U.S. ports of entry. So border crossings may have seemed to be down when, in fact, they were just re-classified as CBP One crossings.

What a difference a change in leadership makes. The Trump White House has completely reversed the function of the former CBP One to fulfill the goal of border security. The new CBP Home app allows those here illegally to “Submit Intent to Depart” and give data regarding their intent to leave the U.S.

The new direction of the app also creates a powerful incentive for self-deportation. Those who return to their home countries voluntarily will retain the option to return to the U.S. legally at some point in the future. Illegal aliens arrested in the U.S. interior by ICE, however, will not only be deported but will have virtually no chance for a legal return.

Securing the southern border was achieved in barely one month. Deporting those here illegally, starting with the worst criminal offenders, will take time and be expensive. Encouraging self-deportation is a smart move to help us reach that goal faster and cheaper.