Image Credit: Carlos Moreno/NurPhoto via Getty Images 
It’s December of 2024 and I am standing on the banks of the Rio Grande in Piedras Negras, Mexico, watching as eight migrants make their way across from Mexico to the U.S. side. Some carry children on their heads as they wade through the dangerous waters.
A moment later, I spot another group of around 40 migrants gathering on the international bridge above me to wait for their CBP One appointment to cross into the U.S. “legally.”
Both parties will probably be met by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, processed, and released into the interior.
Both parties will probably be given a Notice to Appear (NTA) and eventually end up in immigration court for a Master Calendar Hearing.
Both parties are in the country illegally.
Now it’s summer of 2025 and I am sitting in immigration proceedings as an El Salvadoran is told he is in the country illegally and will be scheduled for a future hearing one year from now.
He denies being in the country illegally because he used the CBP One app. The judge explains that this isn’t quite true. Even though he used the app correctly, he is still in the country illegally and was placed in removal proceedings. The El Salvadoran repeats that he is not in the country illegally. He is.
Even though the Office of Field Operations granted migrants parole because they scheduled appointments via CBP One, that doesn’t mean the migrants are in the country legally. Their presence is legal in that parole allows them to be here, but it doesn’t equate to having status while here.
“The creation of the CBP One app was 100% illegal, made-up, and a lie,” Victor Avila, retired federal immigration special agent, told Border Hawk during a recent interview.
“These people (migrants) find themselves with no status. The administration fooled millions of people to come here. The migrants are under the impression they did everything legally, but it isn’t true. You want to blame someone for people getting detained and deported? Blame the Biden administration.”
The CBP One mobile application was a free tool launched on October 28, 2020.
Initially, it was designed to streamline border processing functions for travelers and cargo at U.S. ports of entry. Its original features included providing access to Form I-94 information, scheduling inspections for perishable cargo, and allowing international organizations to assist individuals seeking entry into the U.S. Over time, its functionality expanded significantly, particularly in 2023, when it became a key platform for immigration-related processes under the Biden administration.
Starting in January of 2023, the app allowed migrants in central or northern Mexico to schedule appointments at one of eight southwest border ports of entry (Brownsville, Eagle Pass, Hidalgo, Laredo, El Paso, Nogales, Calexico, and San Ysidro) to seek humanitarian parole under Title 8, not as a formal asylum application.
Approximately 1,450 appointments were allocated daily, with most distributed randomly and 30% reserved for those waiting the longest. Between January 2023 and February 2024, about 547,000 individuals successfully scheduled appointments, with nearly 936,000 migrants processed by April 2024.
“You can access and initiate the app from anywhere. China, Russia, anywhere. After that, you can schedule an appointment in northern Mexico at a POE,” Avila explained.
Additionally, citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who enrolled in the CHNV parole program (another outrageous fabrication of the Biden administration) used CBP One to submit their information to U.S. authorities ahead of travel to American airports.
CBP One was available for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or lawyers to submit information on behalf of individuals seeking humanitarian exemptions to Title 42, a law the government used to expel asylum seekers based on the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain NGO staff could use the app to input a traveler’s name, date of birth, country of origin, contact information, travel history, travel document information, and marital status.
Upon illegal entry or entry at a port of entry via CBP One, an alien was issued a Form I-862 NTA, which is the charging document used in removal proceedings — similar to an indictment in a criminal case.
Aliens in removal proceedings are known as “respondents,” and blank I-862 forms contain three boxes, one of which an immigration officer must first check to denote the respondent’s current status in the U.S.
Aliens who are apprehended as they illegally enter the U.S. are both “arriving aliens” and “applicants for admission.”
After the immigration officer checks one of those boxes, they then set forth allegations supporting charges of inadmissibility.
The NTA also includes the time, date, and place that the respondent must appear for a first removal hearing at a federal immigration court, also known as the Initial Master Calendar, which we covered previously.
On January 20, 2025, the Trump administration terminated CBP One’s immigration-related functions, canceling all existing appointments and shifting its remaining features to a new app called CBP Home, launched in March of 2025.
CBP Home was redesigned to facilitate voluntary self-deportation, offering incentives like cost-free travel and a $1,000 exit bonus for illegal aliens to leave the U.S. without facing enforcement actions.
All this discussion of whether entrants who have applied for asylum are here illegally or not is semantics. Most, if not all, are removable — even if they cannot be deported immediately.
The CBP One app was corrupted by the Biden administration and became a gateway to push more migrants into the country illegally. The migrants themselves were under the impression they were “seeking asylum,” but their legal status was no different than that of those who wandered across the river.
These people now find themselves being detained by federal agents because they are, indeed, in the country illegally.
