Donald Trump has already switched off one of Joe Biden’s keystone immigration policies that facilitated nearly a million migrant crossings.
The Customs and Border Protection’s CBP One app, which provided a range of services including setting up asylum appointments for migrants, no long is online.
‘Effective January 20, 2025, the functionalities of CBP One that previously allowed undocumented aliens to submit advance information and schedule appointments at eight southwest border ports of entry is no longer available, and existing appointments have been cancelled,’ the CBP website states.
After Trump was sworn in at noon local time, the app ceased functioning.
The app offered a range of services, but was popular for helping migrants arrange appointments online or in person to explain why they want to enter the U.S. for work.
Every outstanding appointment on the app was effectively canceled when Trump took office, causing panic among those wanting to get into the U.S.
Immediately videos from the U.S.-Mexico border emerged showing people with appointments, some for as soon as 1 pm local time, began crying as their hopes for a way into America were dashed.
Margelis Tinoco, a migrant from Colombia awaiting entry to the U.S. just south of the border in Mexico, collapsed to her knees after learning of the new Trump policies.
Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th US President in the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. Imediately many of his policies went into effect, like the shut down of CBP One
Margelis Tinoco, a migrant from Colombia, reacts after receiving news that her U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) One appointment was cancelled, on the day of the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, at the Paso del Norte International border bridge in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico January 20, 2025
‘I will declare a national emergency at our southern border,’ Trump said to huge applause as he addressed the crowd at his swearing-in ceremony.
‘All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places in which they came.’
The app notoriously facilitated migrants receiving flights to the U.S. from other countries.
In total, there were over 320,000 migrants flown into the U.S. by the Biden administration.
The major border town El Paso, Texas, temporarily closed its border crossings Monday around Trump’s swearing-in ceremony.
Authorities in riot gear with shields and full body armor were photographed standing guard at the border crossings.
The enhanced security comes as other portions of President Trump’s agenda are put into action.
The president noted how he is reinstating his ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy and ending catch-and-release, a policy that allowed illegal border crossers seeking asylum to be detained and then released within the country as they awaited a court date, in his remarks Monday afternoon.
He is reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy that makes illegal border hoppers wait in the last country where they crossed from, which is most often Mexico, as they wait for a court date to make their asylum claims.
Other early objectives noted by incoming White House officials on a call Monday include reexamining birthright citizenship and asylum, sending U.S. troops to the border after Trump declared a national emergency and suspending refugee programs.
Migrants who requested asylum through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection CBP One application queue at the premises of Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM) to secure a safe passage to the northern border with the U.S., in Tapachula, Mexico, January 20, 2025.
Migrants awaiting entry into the U.S. while in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Ending birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants would mean anyone born on U.S. soil, but whose parents are undocumented aliens will no longer be a de facto citizen of the United States of America.
However, there are advocates who argue this cuts against the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which created the unique birthright citizenship rule for anyone born in the U.S.
Reports have surfaced suggesting there will be as many as 10 border related day one actions by President Trump on Monday.
