WASHINGTON — The White House is trying a new approach to fulfill President Donald Trump’s goal of mass deportations: convincing many undocumented immigrants to simply “self deport.”
Yarixza Estrada left her home in Guatemala four years ago. The 21-year-old made the treacherous journey by foot to cross the U.S. southern border and applied for asylum.
Estrada said she wanted to live in the U.S. “to get ahead, to escape all the bad things that exist in Guatemala, for a better opportunity for my daughter.”
Now, Estrada is packing up her family’s belongings just outside of New York City in New Jersey. A month ago, her husband was arrested by an immigration officer as he commuted to his job at a construction site.
“It’s just very difficult that they’re treating hardworking people this way. We didn’t come here to do any harm,” Estrada said.
Estrada is preparing to self-deport. She plans to travel back to Guatemala soon with her three children to be reunited with her husband and their dad.
“I don’t know my father personally, and I don’t want them to go through the same thing. Because they are his children, and I’ll never take them away from him,” Estrada said.
The Trump administration is spending $200 million on commercials, which encourage undocumented immigrants like Estrada to self deport. This is an attempt to fulfill Trump’s goal of mass deportations.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is seen in the ad and said, “Leave now. If you don’t, we will find you and we will deport you.”
The administration has also redesigned a Biden administration app created to schedule appointments for asylum claims. The retooled app will allow immigrants to signal their intent to self deport instead.
In the ad, Noem suggested that immigrants who self deport may enter the country later. She said, “If you leave now, you may have an opportunity to return and enjoy our freedom and live the American dream, but understand this, under President Trump, America’s borders are closed to lawbreakers.”
But some immigration lawyers in Texas are wary of such comments.
“There’s no basis in the law that someone who self deports will be able to come back,” said Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an immigration attorney. “It is not based in reality these claims that people will be able to come back legally. And so I tell people to please, have caution and again, talk to a lawyer about your case.”
“This is a case-by-case determination where people need to understand the consequences of their own actions and make their own decisions,” Lincoln-Goldfinch continued.
The immigration lawyers suspect that the number of self deportations won’t be significant.
“If they think they’re going to get picked up and kicked out anyway, why do it themselves? You know, I could stay here another year and be with my family, another year, work another year, maybe pay off my house, continue taking my wife to get chemotherapy,” said George Lobb, another immigration attorney.
As for Estrada, she said, “We are all human, we all deserve respect.”
Although Estrada is heading back to Guatemala, she said she is still determined to create a better life for her three children. Two of her kids were born in the U.S., which makes them U.S. citizens.
Estrada said she’s going to “give her best, so they don’t lack anything. Someday, when they’re older, maybe they can return here.”
)
)