Washington, Mar 10 (AP) The Trump administration has unveiled an overhauled cellphone app once used to let migrants apply for asylum, turning it into a system that allows people living illegally in the US to say they want to leave the country voluntarily.

The renamed app, announced Monday and now called CBP Home, is part of the administration's campaign to encourage “self-deportations", touted as an easy and cost-effective way to nudge along President Donald Trump's push to deport millions of immigrants without legal status.

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“The app provides illegal aliens in the United States with a straightforward way to declare their intent to voluntarily depart, offering them the chance to leave before facing harsher consequences,” Pete Flores, the acting commissioner for US Customs and Border Protection, said in a statement.

Moments after Trump took office, the earlier version of the app, CBP One, stopped allowing migrants to apply for asylum, and tens of thousands of border appointments were cancelled.

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More than 900,000 people were allowed in the country on immigration parole under CBP One, generally for two years, starting in January 2023.

The Trump administration has repeatedly urged migrants in the country illegally to leave.

"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," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on the social platform X. “If they don't, we will find them, we will deport them, and they will never return.”

Some people living in the US illegally chose to leave even before Trump's inauguration, though it's unclear how many. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)