Trump Turned Biden’s Own Border App Into Something Democrats Never Saw Coming
Biden's CBP One app waved millions of illegal aliens into the country – and Democrats called it compassion.
Trump took that same app and flipped it into the most cost-effective deportation tool the federal government has ever built.
Now DHS has the numbers – and what illegal aliens are doing with it is the last thing Democrats wanted to hear.
Project Homecoming Has Hit 72,000 Self-Deportations and the Number Is Climbing
Project Homecoming launched in May 2025 – the first federally backed self-deportation program in U.S. history.
Trump signed the proclamation establishing it, and DHS rebuilt Biden's CBP One asylum-scheduling app as CBP Home: a platform for illegal aliens to book their own free flight home and collect a $2,600 exit bonus on the way out.
Democrats called it a gimmick.
An internal DHS document reviewed by CNN tells a different story.
As of March 2026, roughly 72,000 illegal migrants had self-deported through Project Homecoming.
Court documents from DHS Acting Undersecretary Benjamine Huffman reveal that beyond the 38,380 who had already left, nearly 28,600 more were in various stages awaiting departure.
Voluntary immigration court departures hit 34,707 in fiscal year 2025 – a fourfold increase from the 8,663 granted the year before, according to Department of Justice data.
Democrats spent two years telling you Trump's deportation plan would fail.
They were wrong.
The Self-Deportation Stipend Saves Taxpayers $13,000 Per Illegal Alien
DHS pegs the average cost of arresting, detaining, and physically removing one illegal alien at $17,121.
CBP Home departures – including the free flight and the $2,600 bonus – run just over $5,000 per person.
That's a 70% savings per departure, straight from DHS's own numbers.
DHS didn't bury the lead.
"The number of illegal aliens wisely choosing to use CBP Home is skyrocketing," the department posted on X.
"If you are in our nation illegally, download the app NOW to get a free flight home PLUS a $2,600 exit bonus."
The message was clear: leave now on your own terms, or wait for ICE to show up.
Most rational people, faced with that choice, are picking the free flight.
How Trump Converted the CBP Home App Into America's Biggest Voluntary Departure Program
Here's what makes this impossible for Democrats to spin.
Biden's CBP One app was built to help illegal aliens get into the country.
Trump's team flipped it – same infrastructure, opposite mission – and turned it into the most efficient mass-departure tool the federal government has ever deployed.
The self-deportation concept has been dismissed for years by the left as a fantasy.
Mitt Romney floated it in 2012, got laughed off every mainstream stage, and dropped it.
What changed?
Enforcement changed.
When illegal aliens believe there are real consequences for staying – arrest, detention, never returning – the voluntary math shifts fast.
DHS confirmed it deported over 675,000 people in Trump's first year back.
Every illegal alien watching that number knows the clock is running.
And they're not waiting for ICE to knock.
The $2,600 bonus isn't generosity – it's genius.
Trump is buying departures at less than a third of what forced removal costs, using money that would otherwise fund arrests, detention beds, and court backlogs.
Biden handed him the app.
Trump handed them a plane ticket home.
72,000 taken, and the number is climbing.
Sources:
- Elizabeth Weibel, "DHS Says Self-Deportation Numbers Hit over 72,000," Breitbart, April 6, 2026.
- "DHS Announces Historic Travel Assistance and Stipend for Voluntary Self-Deportation," Department of Homeland Security, May 5, 2025.
- "Celebrating One Year of Trump: DHS Now Offering $2,600 Stipend Via the CBP Home App for Illegal Aliens to Leave Now," Department of Homeland Security, January 21, 2026.
- "CBP HOME: Assistance to Voluntarily Self-Deport," Department of Homeland Security, dhs.gov/cbphome.
- "DHS's Self-Deportation Plan Used by 72,000 People So Far," CNN, March 18, 2026.
