While Americans Enjoy Christmas Celebrations and Last-Minute Holiday Preparations, ICE Law Enforcement Was Hard at Work Arresting the Worst of the Worst Including Gang Members, Pedophiles, and Attempted Murderers

The CBP Home app is a U.S. government mobile app from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that lets people who are in the U.S. without lawful status register an “intent to depart” and arrange voluntary self‑deportation.

How it works in practice:

• Download the free CBP Home app from the Apple App Store or Google Play.
• Use the “Intent to Depart” feature to enter basic biographical data (name, DOB, country of citizenship, contact info, selfie) and any co‑travelers.
• CBP vets the information; if approved, DHS arranges and pays for travel (usually within about 21 days), and—under the year‑end promotion—provides a $3,000 stipend plus a free flight home for those who sign up by Dec. 31, 2025.
• After departure, CBP confirms exit via airline/sea records or, for land exits, the person uses the app’s “Verify Departure” function a few miles outside the U.S. border.

Using the app is voluntary and is framed by DHS as an alternative to arrest, detention, and forced removal.

In DHS/ICE language, a “criminal illegal alien” (or “criminal alien”) generally means:

• A non‑U.S. citizen (including people here unlawfully or who overstayed visas),
• Who has been convicted of a criminal offense under U.S. law.

How that status is determined:

• ICE uses programs like the Criminal Alien Program (CAP) to search federal, state, and local jail/prison records and fingerprint databases for non‑citizens with convictions or pending charges.
• DHS’s Inspector General defines “criminal aliens” for ICE as aliens convicted of crimes; ICE then targets them for arrest and removal using those conviction records and immigration databases.
• The category is broad: it can include serious felonies (like murder or sexual assault) but also lesser offenses, as long as there is a recorded conviction.

Tricia McLaughlin is a political appointee serving at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as an Assistant Secretary (a senior leadership rank just below the Secretary and Deputy Secretary). In the ICE press release she is identified as Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, speaking on behalf of DHS leadership and praising ICE’s immigration‑enforcement arrests. Public DHS materials describe her as part of the department’s top leadership team, but as of now there is no independent official bio page with more detailed portfolio or background beyond these references.

When ICE arrests someone who already has a criminal conviction, the typical sequence is:

1. Immigration arrest and custody

   • ICE officers take the person into immigration custody (often after they complete a criminal sentence in a state or federal facility).
   • The person is held in an ICE detention center or, less often, released under supervision (e.g., with check‑ins or an ankle monitor).

2. Immigration charging documents

   • ICE serves a Notice to Appear (NTA) in immigration court, alleging the person is removable (e.g., for being in the U.S. without authorization or for certain crimes).

3. Immigration court proceedings

   • An immigration judge decides whether the person is removable and whether they qualify for any relief (asylum, cancellation of removal, family‑based relief, etc.).
   • Serious convictions can make many forms of relief unavailable.

4. Removal (deportation) or other outcome

   • If ordered removed and no appeal or stay succeeds, ICE arranges deportation to the person’s home country.
   • If the immigration case is terminated or relief is granted, the person may be released or get lawful status.

Any criminal prosecution for the underlying crime is handled earlier by criminal courts, not by ICE; ICE’s role at this stage is immigration enforcement based on those completed or pending criminal cases.

No. The $3,000 stipend plus free flight is tied to a time‑limited promotion and to specific eligibility rules.

Key points from DHS:

• Baseline CBP Home program: “All non‑criminal aliens present in the United States are eligible to use the CBP Home app” for voluntary departure benefits (free travel, forgiveness of civil “failure to depart” fines, and a standard $1,000 exit bonus).
• Holiday promotion in the ICE/DHS releases: people “in the U.S. illegally” who sign up to self‑deport through the CBP Home app by the end of the year get a $3,000 stipend/exit bonus plus a free flight home, instead of the usual $1,000.
• Applicants must:
  • Be unlawfully present in the U.S. (undocumented/overstayed),
  • Use the CBP Home app’s Intent to Depart feature and pass DHS vetting,
  • Not fall into excluded categories (primarily “non‑criminal”; those with serious criminal histories are not the target population for CBP Home incentives).

So, the enhanced $3,000 offer is for eligible, generally non‑criminal undocumented people who register via CBP Home by Dec. 31, 2025; it is not a blanket payment to every person in the U.S. without status.

Sureños‑13 (often written as Surenos‑13 or Sureños) is a large, loosely organized network of Hispanic street gangs that originated in Southern California and is aligned with the Mexican Mafia prison gang.

Key characteristics:

• The name means “Southerners” in Spanish; the “13” refers to the 13th letter of the alphabet (M), for the Mexican Mafia.
• Sureños‑13 groups are involved in crimes such as drug trafficking, extortion, assaults, robberies, and homicides; many sets operate in California and across the U.S.
• U.S. and state law‑enforcement agencies classify Sureños as a violent criminal street gang, and some subsets have been targeted under racketeering (RICO) and drug‑conspiracy cases.

To act on prior convictions, ICE relies on existing criminal‑justice and immigration databases rather than re‑trying the case. Typical verification steps include:

• Domestic (U.S.) convictions

  • ICE officers query biometric and criminal‑history systems such as the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) and the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), as well as state criminal‑history repositories, to confirm identities and conviction records.
  • Through the Criminal Alien Program, ICE has access to jail and prison booking information and court records, which include charges, conviction dates, and sentences.

• Foreign convictions

  • ICE may use information from Interpol notices, foreign criminal‑record checks obtained via law‑enforcement or consular channels, and documentation the person previously submitted in immigration proceedings (e.g., asylum or visa files) to establish that a foreign conviction exists.
  • Those foreign records are evaluated under U.S. immigration law to determine whether they qualify as a removable offense (such as a “crime involving moral turpitude” or “aggravated felony”).

In all cases, ICE treats entries in official criminal‑justice databases and certified court records as the basis for classifying someone as a “criminal alien” before making a targeted immigration arrest.