Illegal Immigrants Hesitant to Use CBP Home App, Lawyers Say

An immigrant from Venezuela tries unsuccessfully to access the CBP One application in Nogales, Mexico, on Jan. 21, 2025. John Moore/Getty Images

Illegal immigrants in the United States are reluctant to use the CBP Home app that the Trump administration has required for self deportation, according to several lawyers.

The app was repurposed from the Biden administration’s CBP One app, which was launched in January 2023 and was used to facilitate the entry of more than 930,000 people of different nationalities.

Those 930,000 foreign nationals had their temporary parole status revoked on March 25 and are being encouraged to register on the CBP Home app and self deport, along with millions of other illegal immigrants. So far they have been reluctant to use it.

Ludmila Padrino, a Venezuelan lawyer based in the United States who is close to a community of Venezuelan illegal immigrants, told The Epoch Times Spanish edition that they do not feel safe registering on the app.

“I don’t know of anyone who has used CBP Home to leave,” Padrino said.

“Many of these people who want to leave have bought houses, set up businesses, and there are many things they have to get sorted out before they can leave beyond filling out an application at CBP Home.”

The Department of Homeland Security didn’t provide the exact number of illegal immigrants who have so far registered with the CBP Home app, but said that in “less than 100 days, thousands of illegal aliens have used the CBP Home app to self-deport.”

“Illegal aliens should use the CBP Home app to self-deport and leave the country now. If they don’t, they will face the consequences. This includes a fine of $998 per day for every day that the illegal alien overstayed their final deportation order,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the department, told The Epoch Times Spanish edition in an email.

Padrino said that many Venezuelans are afraid to return to their home country because they do not feel safe there, and they’re looking for other options.

Under the socialist government of President Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela is in the midst of a political and economic crisis that has worsened in recent years. Almost 8 million Venezuelans have fled the country, of which around 903,000 are living in the United States, according to data from the 2024 Census Bureau.

Padrino said many Venezuelans are now “going to Spain, they are going to Portugal, which are open to receiving the Venezuelan diaspora.”

The Epoch Times contacted immigration authorities in Spain and Portugal to verify the information, but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

Ronmell López, a Nicaraguan activist based in the United States, told The Epoch Times Spanish edition that the situation for Nicaraguans in the United States has become “very complicated.”

“Because it is the only country that does not accept people back. We knew that the humanitarian parole was for two years, it was a contract. So obviously many of the people applied for asylum,” he said.

In Nicaragua, in recent years the socialist government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has instituted a repression campaign with serious human rights violations, according to a Feb. 26 report by the United Nations.

Currently, around 4,000 Nicaraguans are shielded from deportation under a Temporary Protected Status designation, which is set to expire on July 5. Another 93,000 are beneficiaries of the humanitarian parole program granted to Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV) in the Biden era.

López said of the 93,000 who entered under the CHNV program, “some were able to regularize their status, a small number, but the majority are in limbo.”

“Many of these people are now considering applying for political asylum because they are afraid to return, they are very afraid that when they arrive at the airport they will not be allowed in,” López said.

He said many Nicaraguans have asked him for advice on what to do about the CBP Home app “because they want to do things right.”

“Many people think that registering and self-deporting means that they will come looking for you at home and that you will spend about three months stuck in a detention center—basically imprisoned—until they have a plane available where they can gather everyone together and send you back,” López said.