Millions Targeted for Rapid Expulsion as Trump Fulfills Vow
(Bloomberg) -- It took only moments for President Donald Trump to shut down the CBP One app.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Texas HOA Charged With Discrimination for Banning Section 8 Renters
How Sanctuary Cities Are Preparing for Another Showdown With Trump
Deadly Landslide of Garbage Displays Uganda's Missed Opportunity
On Monday, as he moved to fulfill campaign pledges to end birthright citizenship and mobilize troops to step up border enforcement as part of a broader crackdown, Trump also targeted the app used by hundreds of thousands of migrants to cross the border and ask for asylum. A message showed it was “no longer available, and existing appointments have been cancelled.”
That dashed the hopes of those waiting in Mexico for appointments with US authorities, with many left stranded far from their home countries with few viable methods for crossing into the US legally.
Follow The Big Take daily podcast wherever you listen.
Trump’s moves are aimed at targeting millions of foreigners for expulsion and keeping out migrants who don’t have permission to come in, part of fulfilling his pledge to lead the largest mass deportation effort in US history. One edict redefined who is eligible to be a US citizen at birth, while another ordered the deployment of active duty military and National Guard troops to the border in an effort to clamp down on illegal immigration.
Another executive order suspended the asylum system, allowing for anyone with a pending case to be arrested and deported. The order marks a radical change for millions of people who were generally shielded from removal until an immigration judge decided their fate, a process that typically takes several years to complete.
Now migrant communities including in New York, Chicago, Denver and San Diego are bracing for immigration raids to begin as early as Tuesday.
“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 from which they came,” Trump said in his inauguration speech.
Trump’s actions Monday and plans telegraphed for coming days have the potential to radically upend the immigration system, which Republicans and Democrats have long said is broken. They are also sure to face quick and voluminous legal challenges including from states, advocates and immigrants themselves.
The American Civil Liberties Union, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, State Democracy Defenders Fund and Asian Law Caucus quickly brought a lawsuit challenging Trump’s birthright citizenship restrictions.
“Californians must protect immigrants and their families from the unjust, inhumane, anti-immigration policies and practices that President Trump promises to enact,” said Norma Chávez-Peterson, executive director of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties.
The suit filed by Democratic states in Massachusetts, accused the President of a “flagantly unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage.”
At least 3.5 million foreigners have cases pending with the US Justice Department’s immigration court system, the Executive Office for Immigration Review. Roughly 40% are asylum seekers. About 850,000 border crossers filed new asylum cases during the 2024 budget year.
The majority of migrants who have crossed the border illegally in recent years, a broad mix of families, single adults and children traveling alone from all over the world, surrendered to authorities as soon as they are spotted or come upon a waiting Border Patrol agent.
Illegal crossings have sharply declined in the past several months after a Biden administration order put severe limits on asylum applications and amid stepped up enforcement by Mexico’s government.
App Origins
The CBP One app was launched under the first Trump administration in a more limited form, with the scheduling component for those without a visa or other permission to cross the border starting in early 2023 during a Biden administration effort to curb illegal crossings.
Alexander Fleirez, a migrant who had been trying to get an appointment to apply for asylum since leaving Venezuela along with his nine-year-old niece four months ago, was devastated by news of CBP One’s demise. He would still like to get to the US where his sister lives, but thinks resettling in Colombia might now be the best option given Trump’s hostility.
“We got that sad surprise this morning,” he said from Villahermosa, Mexico, where he’s been renting a room while waiting for an appointment. “My niece is crying. She just wanted to see her mother.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has already made plans for the possibility of millions of nationals being sent home under the Trump administration. An estimated 5 million Mexicans live in the US illegally and could be among the easiest to send home in large numbers.
Her government has launched a phone app for people who are arrested and lined up more than 2,600 lawyers and some 2,200 consulate workers to provide assistance. Her foreign minister has met with officials in every border state.
Border Security
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement on X that he’s asked Trump to “protect Texas and the entire US from the invasion along our southern border by exercising the full scope of his constitutional authority.”
Abbott has spent billions of dollars on a state-funded border security operation that has included building a wall, arresting those who cross illegally for trespassing and deploying state troopers and police to the border. He also paid to bus tens of thousands of migrants released by federal authorities to so-called sanctuary cities, including Denver, Chicago, New York and Washington.
Trump has repeatedly said he will focus his deportation efforts on criminals and those who are a threat to public safety or national security, but his order ending asylum opens the door for authorities to arrest and possibly deport millions of foreigners who have been allowed to live in the US while a court decides their fate.
Previous federal law allowed any foreigner to apply for asylum regardless of how they entered the country.
Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he thought Trump’s actions would discourage illegal crossings.
“In four years we haven’t had deterrents,” he said in an interview. “We have had a welcome mat.”
Last year, lawmakers were close to a bill that would have curtailed that process and severely limited access to asylum, but it was scuttled by Trump’s opposition. Biden used executive authority to limit access for illegal border crossers and expanded the use of CBP One.
Sovereignty, Safety
Trump said he will deploy an undetermined number of active duty military and National Guard troops to “repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”
“Our sovereignty, will be reclaimed,” he said in his inaugural speech. “Our safety will be restored.”
Immigration became a top domestic issue for voters in the 2024 election amid record numbers of arrests along the southwest border and strains on public resources in cities around the country where migrants have settled while their wait for federal immigration court hearings. Republicans focused on crime as a wedge issue, including the high-profile murder of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student, by a Venezuelan migrant.
Trump’s crackdown threatened to send migrants trying to evade checkpoints into more dangerous, remote areas of the border region. Record numbers of migrants have died in recent years trying to cross the border illegally, though many others have successfully evaded arrest.
At a shelter in Mexico City, 37-year-old Maria said she had a CBP One appointment scheduled on Wednesday and had already purchased plane tickets to fly up to the border for the meeting. Now, she’s been told the appointment is canceled.
She had left Venezuela in August with her four children, ages 7 to 14, and a cousin. She’d spent several months at a shelter in southern Mexico before making it to the capital.
“I feel very sad, but I am an optimistic person and I trust God more than governments,” she said Monday afternoon.
“I want to get to the US and work, and the most important thing for me is that my children can study,” she added. “Going back to Venezuela is not an option.”
--With assistance from Julie Fine.
(Updates with fresh lawsuit in 10th paragraph.)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
Walgreens Replaced Fridge Doors With Smart Screens. It’s Now a $200 Million Fiasco
How Kendrick Lamar Turned Beef With Drake Into Music Superstardom
Giant Batteries Are Transforming the World’s Electrical Grids
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
