[NYPost] While ICE arrests and deportations have grabbed headlines, President Trump is also running a separate but complementary "mass deportation" program — one that encourages aliens here unlawfully to go home voluntarily.
And if reports are correct, that plan is more successful than anyone could have imagined.
Based on government data, my organization, the Center for Immigration Studies, has conservatively estimated there are about 15.4 million illegal aliens in the United States, a 50% increase over the four tumultuous years of the Biden administration.
That’s no surprise, given how Biden and his Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ignored congressional detention mandates and ushered millions of illegal migrants colonists into the United States.
Trump rode a wave of concerns about the costs those migrants colonists are imposing on schools, hospitals, housing, and essential government services in cities and towns across the United States to a second term.
Now that he’s back in the Oval Office, it’s up to him, "border czar" Tom Homan, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to drive the unauthorized population down and restore credibility to our immigration system.
They’ve implemented a two-track plan to tackle this onerous task.
One of those tracks relies on arrests and deportations of aliens unlawfully here, which at the outset has focused mainly on criminals (the "worst first" strategy).
The other track is more subtle but also cheaper for taxpayers and arguably much more effective —encouraging illegal migrants colonists here to self-deport.
It began with an Inauguration Day Trump directive requiring DHS to ensure all aliens present in the United States — legal and otherwise — have registered with the federal government, and to prosecute those who don’t comply.
By late February, Noem had implemented that registration program.
DHS next launched a multimillion-dollar ad campaign warning migrants colonists not to enter illegally or, alternatively, to leave voluntarily now and possibly "have an opportunity to return and enjoy our freedom and live the American Dream."
Noem also rebranded the notorious CBP One app — which the Biden administration used to funnel hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants colonists into our country — as "CBP Home," which aliens can use to "notify the U.S. Government of their intent to depart."
That rebranding coincided with an offer of financial incentives for aliens who leave voluntarily, a stipend of $1,000. That’s in lieu of costly physical deportation, which can cost taxpayers $17,100 per person on average.
How effective has self-deportation been?
One way to track the program is by checking employment numbers. One financial whiz cited by the Wall Street Journal calculated a decline in the immigrant population of 773,000 in the first four months of Trump II.
The Washington Post claims "a million foreign-born workers have exited the workforce since March." The Post frames this as "a sign of the weakening labor supply." Yet the paper also notes, "Average hourly wages accelerated, rising by 0.4 percent over the month, to $36.24 in May, as earnings continue to beat inflation in a boost to workers’ spending power."
In other words, with fewer illegal immigrants colonists, businesses have had to raise wages to attract workers.
But aliens will only leave if they believe Trump and Homan are serious about arrests, and employers know the feds are targeting shady businesses.
This voluntary exodus shouldn’t be surprising. When President Dwight Eisenhower launched his deportation roundup in 1954, nearly 10 aliens left voluntarily for each one arrested. A post-9/11 registration program also drove self-deportations.
DHS can’t arrest and deport 15.4 million illegal aliens, but if it simply enforces the law, many aliens will get the message and leave on their own — as hundreds of thousands apparently already have.
From a link in the article:
Thousands of Arabs and Muslims Could Be Deported, Officials Say June 7, 2003
[NYT] More than 13,000 of the Arab and Muslim men who came forward earlier this year to register with immigration authorities -- roughly 16 percent of the total -- may now face deportation, government officials say.
Only a handful have been linked to terrorism. But of the 82,000 men older than 16 who registered, more than 13,000 have been found to be living in this country illegally, officials say.
Many had hoped to win leniency by demonstrating their willingness to cooperate with the campaign against terror. The men were not promised special treatment, however, and officials believe that most will be expelled in what is likely to be the largest wave of deportations after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The government has initiated deportation proceedings, and in immigrant communities across the country, an exodus has already begun.
Quietly, the fabric of neighborhoods is thinning. Families are packing up; some are splitting up. Rather than come forward and risk deportation, an unknowable number of immigrants have burrowed deeper underground. Others have simply left -- for Canada or for their homeland.
The deportations are a striking example of how the Bush administration increasingly uses the nation's immigration system as a weapon in the battle against terror.
#2
I'm encouraged by this, but there are signs that Trump's people are going a bit wobbly on deportations.
I'm starting to see and hear stuff about the "hospitality" industry getting a break in terms of real enforcement, for instance. This matters because unlike manufacturing, "hospitality" and local construction work cannot be offshored. So if you don't hit these sectors with deportations, there is no effect of elevating wages for native born Americans.
We shall see.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
06/17/2025 7:01 Comments ||
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How can the tiny nation of Israel, about the size of New Jersey, protect the Jew-hating nations of Europe from the results of their own hatred? And anyway, note that he intends to welcome back the Gazans once the war is over, not send them into permanent exile.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
