Trump shuts down CBP One app, closing a pathway to America; New DHS AI directive sets prohibited uses, expands acquisition governance

President Donald Trump on Monday officially shut down the Customs and Border Protection-run app designed to help schedule appointments for people seeking eligibility for asylum, closing off a pathway for migrants at the Southern border hoping to enter the United States. Supporters of the CBP One app had said that the system made the jobs of border agents easier, despite technical difficulties and data privacy questions raised by critics of the platform. It’s estimated that around a million people used the app to enter the country. The app shutdown came amid a series of other executive orders focused on immigration. Before the election, Trump frequently criticized the app, saying that it was being used for “smuggling” migrants.

The Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security unveiled a list of artificial intelligence uses that are prohibited for agency missions as part of a new directive quietly introduced last week. The directive, which is DHS’s latest effort to create a guiding policy for the use and acquisition of AI, also sets governance requirements for how the department and its components should approach the technology — including how it should buy, test and operate it, and report any incidents involving its use. While DHS has briefly addressed in previous policy that it’s prohibited for department personnel to use AI for discriminatory purposes, the latest policy expands upon and adds to that, more thoroughly detailing uses of AI and associated data that are forbidden.

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