By: Mary Sanchez
He has been emboldened by what he’s misreading as a mandate to commit constitutionally reckless, irrational, and simply cruel actions concerning immigration.
The impact of one Trump decision began playing out at the southern border, as the president was being served his first diet cola during an inaugural luncheon. The nondescript CBP One app, a service offered by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was canceled.
The app began under the Biden administration for use on mobile devices. It allowed migrants outside of the country to request an appointment with U.S. immigration authorities at one of eight ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border.
If approved, migrants could enter temporarily the U.S. as they await further hearings and decisions before an immigration judge.
Within minutes of Trump taking the oath of office, his administration promptly canceled these appointments. Families at the border, ready for their long-awaited appointments, reportedly were confused and despondent.
Some of them had spent months crossing dangerous lands. Some had been robbed by gangs and suffered violence just to see their chance of even speaking with an immigration official crumble.
The app wasn’t a perfect solution, despite its use to schedule about 1,400 appointments a day. There are backlogs in the immigration courts, and a lack of officers at the border to hear preliminary cases.
But the app did help to organize people. It was part of an effort to create a process for migrants to follow.
Many U.S. voters often remark that they would be fine with legal immigration as long as newcomers followed the legal procedures. When pressed further, they tend to think that means asking migrants to wait their turn, fill out forms, undergo vetting, and pay fees.
Inherent in such comments is an assumption that we have a fluidly functional immigration system – and that anyone who gets branded as “undocumented” must be a conniving criminal seeking to evade this non-existent well-oiled system.
The app didn’t grant anyone legal rights, but it did create much needed structure, a virtual line for people to wait in.
One of the most common uses of the app were migrant requests for asylum. Again, using it didn’t grant anything beyond an initial meeting, an orderly way to apply.
Asylum is not granted swiftly or frivolously. People must prove they were persecuted in their native countries, undergo extensive vetting, be sponsored, and establish credible fears they have if repatriated.
Trump stomped on that sliver of hope. In his inauguration remarks, he railed against those same migrants, raising his usual claims that they’re murderers and rapists who just got released from prisons from around the globe.
The contention is nonsense, another Trump fabrication.
Mexico quickly stepped up. It said that some migrants can legally wait there, for now, as their previously set cases play out in U.S. immigration courts.
Americans salivating at the prospect of immigrants being driven from the U.S. will likely be disappointed to learn that much of what Trump brags about, will not be feasible.
He wants to end birthright citizenship by executive order, but that matter has been litigated and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
He says that he wants to remove millions of undocumented immigrants. The logistics of doing so – the manpower, the chartered flights, the funds – are where Trump’s dream falls apart.
Federal immigration agents already remove hundreds of thousands of immigrants annually, often after they’ve served time in prison for violent offenses. Most voters don’t know that, however.
So Trump likely will brag that this standard practice is of his own doing, and that it’s brand new.
Countries with which the U.S. has fractured diplomatic relations, like Venezuela, make this difficult. The U.S. can’t send migrants to countries where those international flights won’t be allowed to land.
That’s just one factor that people need to know.
Media, civic leaders, politicians, and influential people must continue building facts around the utterances and actions of Trump. They should address real world outcomes and complications without adding to the trauma that many immigrant communities are feeling.
The cancellation of the CBP One app is a small change.
But be clear about the intention: Trump and many of his handpicked staffers don’t want legal migration – they want zero migration.
Chaos and cruelty, along with the hope that foreigners will simply give up and never come or leave, is the point.
Readers can reach Mary Sanchez at msanchezcolumn@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter @msanchezcolumn.
(C)2025 Mary Sanchez. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
