President Donald Trump has issued an ultimatum to the roughly one million migrants who were allowed to live in the country during the Biden administration.
Since January 2023, former President Joe Biden’s administration has allowed more than 900,000 migrants to remain in the country using the CBP One app.
The app was set up to provide migrants with information and send them details such as appointments for meetings with officials.
They were generally allowed to remain in the United States for two years with authorization to work under a presidential authority called parole.
However, Trump has now turned the tables and has used the app to order the migrants to leave the country “immediately.”
In a message to almost one million Biden-era migrants, the Trump admin warned that those who ignore the order “will face consequences.”
Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said:
“Canceling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect national security.”
Authorities confirmed termination notices were sent to CBP One beneficiaries but did not say how many.
They were urged to voluntary self-deport using the same app they entered on.
The app how now been renamed CBP Home by Trump’s DHS.
The DHS also announced that those who are in the U.S. illegally and refuse to leave will be charged $998 per day until they go.
“If they don’t [leave], they will face the consequences,” a DHS spokesperson warned.
“This includes a fine of $998 per day for every day that the illegal alien overstayed their final deportation order.”
Officials are planning to roll out the fines under a rarely used 1996 law that allows fines to be imposed on those avoiding removal orders.
The law was first enforced in 2018 under Trump’s first term.
However, Biden‘s administration suspended the rule in 2021.
The Biden admin claimed the penalties were “ineffective and unnecessary punitive measures.”
One senior Trump administration official said the fines will be retroactive up to five years, dating back to 2019.
As such, it could result in penalties totaling over $1 million in some circumstances.
It was unclear how many beneficiaries would be affected.
“It’s time for you to abandon the United States,” the DHS wrote to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens.
Illegals who received the message have been sharing screenshots on social media platforms.
Al Otro Lado, a nonprofit organization that helps illegal aliens avoid deportation, said some who received the messages are from Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico.
CBP One was a cornerstone of the Biden administration’s strategy to flood the country with illegal aliens.
The plan sought to expand legal pathways to enter the United States to encourage those seeking to bypass illegal border crossings.
By the end of December, 936,500 people had been allowed to enter with the CBP One app after crossing the border from Mexico.
Trump ended CBP One for new entrants on his first day in office.
He has also ended and revoked temporary status for many who benefited under Biden’s policies.
On Monday, DHS said that Biden’s use of parole authority “further fueled the worst border crisis in U.S. history.”
Biden used the authority more than any president since it was created in 1952.
The fines from DHS would reportedly only apply to the 1.6 million migrants in the U.S. facing deportation orders.
According to White House emails reviewed by Reuters, the administration also has plans to seize the property of those who refuse to cough up the cash for the fines.
U.S. officials on those emails discussed how the Department of Justice’s civil asset forfeiture division could be used to help with seizing the migrant’s assets.
DHS previously warned in a social media post on March 31 that fines were being considered for migrants who fail to comply with their deportation orders.
During Trump’s first administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued fines ranging from $300,000 to $500,000 to migrants who refused to depart the U.S. by taking refuge in churches.
In 2019, Edith Espinal Moreno, an illegal alien from Mexico, was ordered to pay $497,000 for “failing to depart the U.S. as previously agreed.”
Moreno had overstayed her deportation order by two years and took refuge at an Ohio church during that time.
Eventually, ICE dismissed the fine.
Moreno was finally arrested for deportation last month.
