“As president, I will immediately end the migrant invasion of America. We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal entries, terminate Kamala’s human smuggling phone app (CBP One app), revoke immunity from deportation, suspend refugee resettlement, and will send Kamala’s illegal migrants back to their country of origin (also known as remigration),” Trump wrote in a message to X on September 15.

As president, I will immediately end the migrant invasion of America. We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal entries, terminate the Kamala Human Smuggling Phone App (CBP One App), revoke immunity from deportation, suspend refugee resettlement, and return the Kamala refugees…

– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 15, 2024

But the campaign promise to remove immigration features that the Biden administration had added to the system U.S. Customs and Border Protection The app could trigger an influx of illegal immigrants or have the opposite effect and draw fewer people from outside the United States to the southern border, immigration policy analysts say.

If Trump removes the app, immigrants in Mexico won’t be able to apply for an appointment and will instead choose to cross the border illegally. But turning off the app would also mean that immigrants who are in their home countries could choose not to travel to the United States, knowing that they have no chance of obtaining parole in the majority through the nomination process.

Removing the app could also prompt more people to rush to the border in the short term, hoping to get an appointment on the long waitlist, according to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior researcher at the American Immigration Council in Washington.

“The end of the Biden administration’s alternative legal pathways could lead to increased migration at the border, although the exact impact is difficult to predict with certainty,” Reichlin-Melnick said in a post. “Ending the CBP One process at ports of entry could encourage some migrants to take their chances crossing illegally, rather than waiting months in Mexico for the chance to enter legally. »

The Biden-Harris administration added two features to the app in early 2023 that allowed immigrants to seek admission from outside the country or meet with a U.S. customs agent. The measure was intended to give immigrants a way to seek admission without illegally crossing the southern border between ports of entry, but Republicans criticized it as a backdoor way to admit hundreds of thousands of people into the country in less than two years.

The CBP One application allows immigrants from four countries, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, to apply to enter the United States on parole, which allows a person to stay there for two years and receive a permit of work. Recipients must have a sponsor in the United States and pay for their international commercial flight. Since the process was fully rolled out in January 2023, more than half a million people have been admitted.

The app’s feature allowing immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to apply and fly into the country was part of a “carrot and stick deal with Mexico,” and in return , Mexico gave the United States the ability to expel certain citizens from their country. these countries on the border with Mexico.

“Ending the program could threaten this agreement, by limiting the United States’ ability to manage migration from countries like Venezuela that limit deportation flights,” Reichlin-Melnick said.

The app’s second function is to allow immigrants to Mexico to make an appointment at a land port of entry on the southern border to meet with U.S. customs officials. Up to 1,450 appointments can be scheduled daily, for a total of over 43,000 per month. Immigrants who make appointments wait months to be seen at one of the eight ports of entry used for appointments and are overwhelmingly admitted.

The Center for Immigration Studies takes a hardline approach to immigration and views CBP One enforcement as going beyond the authority of the executive branch.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, called the CBP One app a “gateway” for immigrants to enter the country because it incentivizes them to travel to Mexico , where they can then request an appointment.

Eric Ruark, research director for the nonpartisan immigration organization NumbersUSA, said the Biden White House has not yet revealed whether it will increasingly try to increase the number of daily appointments in order to attract more people to the country before Trump takes office.

“The Biden administration has used parole and (temporary protected status) and the CBP One app to bring people in through what they would characterize as legal avenues. Are they going to try to fast-track these to get more people in and then have the Trump administration deal with the headache of trying to reverse these things,” Ruark said. “I would expect them to try to expedite the arrival of as many people as possible before January (2025).”

The Trump administration may already have a solution in place to deal with a potential influx of people who, frustrated by the lack of available appointments, choose to enter the United States between ports of entry .

Trump could revive the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as “Remain in Mexico,” which required asylum-seeking immigrants to live south of the border while their cases were considered in immigration court .

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Additionally, last June, President Joe Biden took an executive action that greatly affected the ability of illegal immigrants arriving at the border to seek asylum and imposed harsh consequences on immigrants arrested for crossing the border illegally and who have not requested asylum.

If Trump kept the Biden executive order in effect, immigrants stuck between ports of entry “would be automatically disqualified for asylum” and barred from seeking asylum for five years.