The Trump administration has released a black-and-white holiday video on X encouraging immigrants in the country illegally to use the CBP Home app to return "home for the holidays." The Department of Homeland Security presents the app as a way to facilitate voluntary departures with government-funded travel and a $1,000 exit bonus, while warning that those who refuse to leave could face arrest, deportation, fines, and long-term bans from reentering the United States.
On November 24, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a black-and-white video on X, styled like an old-time holiday special, opening with the message "DHS presents 'Home For The Holidays'." The clip urges people who are in the country illegally to use the CBP Home app to arrange their departure, and includes on-screen text telling viewers to "Use the CBP Home app to head home for the holidays." The imagery shows smiling people boarding planes, children receiving stuffed animals, and a man giving a thumbs-up, presenting self-deportation as a more pleasant option than arrest and forced removal.
According to The Daily Wire, the Trump administration launched CBP Home earlier in 2025 by rebranding and repurposing the previous CBP One app so that immigrants without legal status can notify the government of their intent to leave and coordinate what DHS describes as voluntary self-deportation. Other outlets, including The Associated Press and The Guardian, have likewise reported that the app is now focused on facilitating so‑called self-deportation rather than processing asylum applications.
DHS materials state that the government covers travel costs and provides a $1,000 exit bonus for those who use CBP Home to depart, as part of President Donald Trump’s "Project Homecoming" and the broader "Stay Out and Leave Now" campaign. A July 3, 2025 DHS fact sheet describes incentives such as a free flight to the migrant’s home country or another country of lawful status, forgiveness of certain civil fines related to failure to depart, and a $1,000 payment upon confirmed return.
In a statement promoting the app and the national advertising campaign around it, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said that the CBP Home app "gives aliens the option to leave now, and self deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream." In separate comments highlighted by DHS and summarized by outlets including The Daily Wire and the Associated Press, Noem has warned that those who decline to depart face a higher risk of fines, arrest, deportation and being permanently or long-term barred from returning to the United States.
The holiday video and related messaging are being released against a backdrop of stepped-up immigration enforcement. Reporting by The Associated Press, The Washington Post and other outlets has detailed a broader Trump administration strategy that includes revoking parole or temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants who entered under prior policies, expanding immigration raids, and pressing those affected to leave via the CBP Home app or face forcible removal.
The Daily Wire, citing DHS, reports that more than 1.6 million immigrants in the country illegally have used CBP Home or related programs to depart the United States, while more than 500,000 others have been formally removed by federal authorities. DHS has publicly touted record levels of self-deportations through the app but has not released detailed underlying statistics, and independent verification of the precise figures remains limited. President Trump has previously set a goal of deporting roughly one million immigrants in the country illegally per year as part of his broader enforcement strategy.
