In this DHS press release, “self-deported” refers to people DHS says left the U.S. on their own rather than being formally removed by ICE (for example, leaving after a DHS “self‑deportation” program contact, taking voluntary departure, or deciding to depart to avoid enforcement). Unlike formal deportations, there is no single, transparent, legally defined metric for “self‑deportations,” and DHS has not publicly released detailed methodology for how it arrived at the 1.9 million figure. Because the U.S. lacks full exit controls for all travelers, large “self‑deportation” numbers are typically rough estimates based on partial departure records and demographic modeling, and they cannot be independently verified from public data at this time.
Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) §287(g) authorizes DHS (through ICE) to sign agreements with state, local, and tribal law‑enforcement agencies so certain of their officers can perform limited federal immigration functions under ICE supervision. In practice, a law‑enforcement agency signs a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with ICE; its officers are vetted and trained by ICE; and those officers can then, for example, check immigration status of people in jail, issue immigration detainers, or help serve ICE warrants, depending on the specific 287(g) “model” (Jail Enforcement, Task Force, Tribal Task Force, or Warrant Service Officer). ICE provides oversight, but day‑to‑day encounters begin with local policing (such as an arrest on a state charge) and can then lead to immigration processing and transfer to ICE custody.
A Notice to Appear (NTA) is DHS Form I‑862, the document that starts removal (deportation) proceedings in immigration court. It lists the government’s factual allegations about the person (citizenship, how they entered, etc.), the legal charges of removability, and the requirement to appear before an immigration judge at a given court. Once DHS files the NTA with the court, the person becomes a “respondent” in removal proceedings. Legal consequences include: they must attend hearings (missing a hearing can lead to an in‑absentia deportation order); they may apply for relief (asylum, cancellation of removal, etc.) if eligible; and if the judge ultimately sustains the charges and denies relief, a formal removal order is entered, which can carry bars on returning to the U.S. for years or permanently, depending on the case.
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a humanitarian status the DHS Secretary can grant to nationals of countries facing war, natural disaster, or other extraordinary conditions, if they are already in the U.S. TPS holders: (1) are not removable while TPS is in effect, (2) can get work authorization, and (3) may receive travel authorization, but TPS itself does not give a green card. When TPS for a country is terminated (after notice in the Federal Register and a wind‑down period), people who only have TPS lose that protection and their work authorization when the end date arrives. Unless they have or obtain some other lawful status, they revert to being removable under the immigration laws and may face arrest, detention, or deportation, even if DHS politically describes this as being “required to self‑deport.”
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (also called the One Big Beautiful Bill or H.R. 1 in some coverage) is a 2025 law that packages major tax provisions with very large increases in immigration and border‑security funding. Analyses of the enacted law report that it directs roughly $170–190 billion in new spending to DHS for immigration enforcement, detention, and border‑wall or “smart wall” projects, funded in part by higher fees on many legal immigration applications and cuts elsewhere in the federal budget. DHS and CBP then use those appropriated funds to award specific border wall construction contracts (for example, the $4.5+ billion in smart wall contracts noted in CBP’s October 2025 release) and to set up a multi‑year “acquisition vehicle” worth tens of billions that pre‑approves vendors for future wall‑related work. The press release’s statement that wall contracts and a $37‑billion acquisition vehicle are “funded by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act” reflects this dedicated stream of appropriations from the law to CBP and related DHS components.
Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEVs) are software or hardware security flaws that have confirmed, real‑world exploitation by attackers. CISA maintains a public KEV Catalog listing these vulnerabilities and, for U.S. federal civilian agencies, mandates deadlines to patch or mitigate them. Pre‑ransomware notifications are alerts CISA sends to organizations when it detects early signs of ransomware operators in their networks—before the data is encrypted or a ransom demand is issued—based on threat‑intelligence tips and technical telemetry. Private‑sector organizations should: (1) continuously monitor the KEV Catalog and treat any listed issues in their environment as top‑priority to patch or mitigate; (2) ensure they have an incident‑response plan and contacts ready so if they receive a CISA pre‑ransomware notification they can immediately isolate affected systems, eradicate the intrusion, and then report and coordinate with CISA and law enforcement; and (3) use CISA guidance and tools (such as ransomware best‑practice checklists) to harden systems proactively so KEVs are not left open for attackers to exploit.
Traditionally, FEMA Public Assistance grants for damaged public infrastructure relied on labor‑intensive, on‑site inspections where staff visited each damaged facility, gathered detailed repair estimates, and iterated with applicants—often taking well over a year from disaster to obligation of funds. The RAPID (Rapid Assessment with Public Infrastructure Data) process replaces much of that with geospatial data and publicly available infrastructure information to estimate costs for facilities that are damaged beyond repair, reducing the need for repeated site visits. According to FEMA’s own reporting, using RAPID on hundreds of projects cut average program processing time from about 396 days to 135 days, with some projects obligated in as few as 47 days, and lowered the paperwork and staff burden on state and local applicants compared with the traditional approach.