On his social media platform X, Musk promoted the ‘CBP Home’ app, introduced by the Trump administration. The mobile app acts as a ‘self-deportation’ tool for illegal immigrants in the United States. The “CBP Home” app replaced the Biden administration’s ‘CBP One’ app.
“New app to assist in self-deportation!” Musk wrote on X on Sunday, sharing a post about the tool from US Customs and Border Protection.
New app to assist in self-deportation! https://t.co/cAX5lP4lhd
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 16, 2025
Musk’s endorsement came a week after Ranjani Srinivasan, a Columbia University student, became one of the first people in the country to use the CBP Home App to legally ‘self-deport’ from the US and avoid being arrested and detained.
Ranjani Srinivasan, an urban planning PhD candidate at Columbia, entered the US on a student visa. Her visa was cancelled on March 5 because the US government claimed she supported Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Fearing arrest, Srinivasan made the hasty decision to self-deport to Canada using CBP Home.
Several social media users reacted to Elon Musk’s choice of supporting a self-deportation app.
One user suggested, “If they decide to make plans to leave they may be allowed back. We should make it if they self-report they can apply again and if not they are banned for life.”
If they decide to make plans to leave they may be allowed back. We should make it if they self report they can apply again and if not they are banned for life.
— James McDowell (@itsmagaJames) March 16, 2025
A second user wrote in part, “I like the self-deport app. It gives illegal immigrants the opportunity to leave voluntarily and then return the right way and become legal US citizens.”
I like the self-deport app. It gives illegal immigrants the opportunity to leave voluntarily and then return the right way and become legal US citizens. If illegal immigrants instead do not self-deport and are arrested and deported, they lose their chance to ever become citizens.
— TheNateAndGarrettShow (@Nategarrettshow) March 16, 2025
“Pay them $15,000 plus transportation to self-deport. In order to return they must pay the $15,000 back to the US Govt or show skills needed with no criminal record,” one suggested.
The CBP Home App was initially created to help with asylum appointments, but the Trump administration reconfigured it to allow people to ‘self-deport’ legally, preventing them from being arrested and detained.
The app is intended to enhance the nation’s effort to “secure the border by ensuring lawful entry for travellers and supporting effective enforcement,” per US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
‘Report Departure,’ an essential aspect of the new CBP Home app, enables undocumented individuals to voluntarily announce their ‘intent to depart’ the country.
Pete Flores, Acting Commissioner of CBP stated that the software gives ‘illegal aliens’ in the US a simple way to express their want to ‘voluntarily depart,’ allowing them to do so before incurring more ‘harsher consequences.’
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem further added that the CBP Home app gives aliens the opportunity to return lawfully in the future and pursue the American dream by choosing to “leave now and self-deport.”
The US government viewed the ‘CBP Home’ app as a simple and economical means of advancing President Trump’s plans to deport hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. It also fits into the White House’s larger plan to fundamentally modify the US immigration system.
