How Trump Admin Increases Pressure for Illegal Immigrants to Self-Deport

The use of executive actions, age-old laws, and ad campaigns take a carrot-and-stick approach to removing millions of illegal immigrants.

Migrants who illegally crossed into the United States await processing by U.S. Border Patrol agents outside of San Diego, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Self-deportation might begin to look more attractive to those in the country illegally as the Trump administration intensifies the pressure for them to leave.

On his first day in office, Jan. 20, President Donald Trump signed 10 border-related executive actions to secure the border and deter illegal immigration while planning for mass deportations.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection encounters with illegal immigrants under Trump have plummeted from 81,528 in January to 28,654 in February, according to the latest number available.

In the first 50 days of the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement made 32,809 enforcement arrests. That nearly equaled the total of 33,242 arrests for fiscal 2024. During Trump’s first month in office, 37,660 people were deported, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security data first reported by Reuters.

One executive order titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” set into motion a federal rule change that will help the administration account for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants who entered the country under the Biden administration.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an internal rule change that went into effect on April 11, creating a registry for foreign nationals. Registration of noncitizens residing in the country is required by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.

The Alien Registration Act of 1940, also known as the Smith Act, generally requires all foreign nationals staying in the country beyond 30 days to apply to register and get fingerprinted, but it hasn’t always been enforced.

DHS’s registration requirement must be completed by those 14 or older if they didn’t do so in the past. Once registered and fingerprinted, DHS will issue evidence of registration, which foreign nationals “over the age of 18 must carry and keep in their personal possession at all times.”

Parents will need to register their children younger than 14, then re-register them when they turn 14.

A federal judge on April 10 ruled the Trump administration could move forward with a requirement that everyone in the United States illegally must register with the federal government and carry documentation.

Judge Trevor Neil McFadden, appointed by Trump, ruled in favor of the administration, whose attorneys argued they were enforcing a requirement that already existed for everyone in the country who isn’t an American citizen. McFadden’s ruling didn’t address the substance of the issue. Instead, the judge ruled that immigrant rights groups pushing to stop the requirement didn’t have standing to pursue their claims.

Failure to comply may result in criminal and civil penalties, up to and including misdemeanor prosecution, fines, and jail time, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, said the new rule will help the government document the unknown millions of immigrants who entered the country unlawfully over the past four years.

“If you think about it, we have no idea who’s here,” she told The Epoch Times. “So it was a perfect time to say, ‘Oh, by the way, I’m reminding you of this registry requirement, and if you don’t comply, that makes you deportable.’”

The DHS also plans to fine illegal immigrants under deportation orders up to $998 a day if they don’t leave the United States.

A migrant shows the CBP One App from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on May 10, 2023. The app has been rebranded as CBP Home. Gilles Clarenne/AFP via Getty Images

The fines stem from a 1996 law that Trump used during his first term to pressure illegal immigrants to self-deport.

Ries noted that the fines are aimed at the 1.4 million illegal immigrants who have final deportation orders issued by a judge.

“So they’re on notice,” Ries said. “If they continue to stay, then they’re going to rack up fines.”

From early on, the administration has used a carrot-and-stick approach to self-deportation because of limited government resources.

On March 15, the administration launched an international, multimillion-dollar ad campaign featuring DHS Secretary Kristi Noem warning illegal immigrants to self-deport.

“If you are here illegally, we will find you and deport you. You will never return. But if you leave now, you may have an opportunity to return and enjoy our freedom and live the American dream,” she says during the video.

Another example is the makeover of the CBP One app, which during the Biden administration allowed migrants to make an appointment to seek asylum.

Under Trump, DHS flipped the script. The app has been rebranded as CBP Home and now encourages illegal immigrants to self-deport.

This self-deportation functionality is part of a larger $200 million domestic and international ad campaign encouraging illegal aliens to “stay out and leave now.”

“The app thing is quite clever,” said Joshua Treviño, a senior fellow for the Western Hemisphere Initiative at the America First Policy Institute and policy analyst for the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Treviño told The Epoch Times the Trump administration is using a whole-of-government approach to secure the border and deport illegal immigrants.

“The Trump administration understands that the crisis and illegal migration and illegal presence in the United States really required an entire ecosystem of permissiveness to create it,” he said.

Bajo Chiquito on the banks of the Rio Tuquesa in Panama's Darien Gap on Feb. 18, 2024. Migrants enter the Darien from Colombia and cross the mountains on a three- to four-day journey. Courtesy of Bobby Sanchez

Treviño, who frequently travels to Latin America, said countries seem to be getting the message on Trump’s border policy. They appear to be making efforts to curtail illegal immigration and human trafficking, he said.

He said Panama has been successful in cracking down on illegal immigration through the Darien Gap. Latin American news outlets have reported that traffic along the treacherous jungle route has been drastically reduced.

“I can tell you firsthand, having been across Central and South America in the past two weeks, that there is a real understanding and a real sense that it’s a new day with the government of the United States,” he said.

Old Laws Revived

The 1996 law and Immigration and Nationality Act aren’t the only laws being revived by the Trump administration.

On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to “invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil.”

Once in office, he signed an executive order that included using the centuries-old law to expedite the deportation of foreign national gangs and cartel members to help secure the U.S. border.

The Alien Enemies Act can be used to stop “any qualifying invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States by a qualifying actor.”

It’s part of the larger Alien and Sedition Acts, which Congress enacted during John Adams’s presidency when the United States was on the brink of war with France. This sweeping law grants the president extraordinary power when invoked.

Last month, the Trump administration cited the law as the basis for removing about half of the 238 alleged Tren de Aragua gang members and 21 MS-13 gang members to El Salvador’s Center for Terrorism Confinement, known as CECOT.

The deportation was documented by El Salvador, which released a video showing the prisoners being led off planes by the military, loaded onto buses and military-style vehicles, and whisked away to the prison.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg ordered the two planes carrying the alleged illegal immigrant gang members to El Salvador and Honduras to return to the United States.

Boasberg verbally ordered the planes to be turned around but did not include the directive in his written order.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruled on April 7 that for now, the Trump administration could continue deporting gang members using the Act, overturning a lower court ruling.

Salvadoran guards escort alleged members of the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs recently deported by the U.S. government to be imprisoned in the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, on March 31, 2025. President's press secretary/Handout via Reuters

Birthright Citizenship

One of the most controversial executive orders Trump issued involves birthright citizenship, a legal concept that hasn’t seen a significant court challenge in 200 years.

Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order stated that the federal government does not automatically recognize birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants in the United States. The order appears destined to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Three federal judges in three different states have blocked Trump’s order. Birthright citizenship has been the law of the land, applied regardless of the parents’ citizenship or nationality, with few exceptions, since the 1898 Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark.

According to the 14th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Trump hinges his argument on the qualifying part of the amendment, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”

In a February commentary published by The Epoch Times, Bill King, a lawyer and author of “Saving Face” and “Unapologetically Moderate,” said birthright citizenship isn’t automatically recognized in other parts of the world.

Many countries rely on “jus sanguinis,” or the “right of blood.” In contrast, countries like the United States, Mexico, and Canada have moved to a “jus soli” model, the right of the soil or country of birth, according to King, a lawyer and fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute in Houston.

The right of soil has roots in the feudal concept of loyalty to the lord of the land where one is born. Right of blood bases citizenship on the nationality of the child’s parents and traces its origins to Roman law, King wrote.

King said “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” was clearly intended to limit granting citizenship based on birthplace in some way.

However, the phrase was imprecise.

During the debates surrounding the adoption of the 14th Amendment, the framers mentioned the exclusion of Indian tribes, children born to foreign diplomats or foreign soldiers temporarily residing in the country, he wrote.