The self‑deportation dilemma: Persecuted in the United States but unsure how to leave

As part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration campaign, the administration is promoting self-deportation, the euphemism for the voluntary — in reality, pressure‑driven — return of migrants to their countries of origin amid the climate of persecution unleashed in the United States. Self-deporting, however, is no easy task, no matter how willing the individuals may be. Many migrants choose to leave in order to put an end to the threat of being detained, separated from their families, and confined in one of the infamous detention centers run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After making such a difficult decision — one that alters the course of their lives — they face the dilemma of how to do it without falling into the hands of federal agents in the process.

Mireya decided to return to Mexico after living in the United States for 18 years. She entered legally in 2008 but overstayed her permitted period without adjusting her immigration status. She chose to go back to Mexico to continue medical treatment, given the barriers undocumented people face in accessing healthcare in the United States. Last month, when she was at the Oklahoma airport, about to board her flight, police detained her and handed her over to ICE agents.

“She asked them why they were detaining her if she was leaving. She showed them her ticket, but they told her it was ‘too late,’” her attorney, Wendy Rodríguez, told EL PAÍS by phone. “About 30 minutes later, they went to her house — we still don’t know how they got the address — and without any warrant they detained two of her three children and her husband. They even took the dogs,” she explained. All four are now being held at the Bluebonnet detention center in Texas.

Mireya did not use the CBP Home app, which the Trump administration created to promote self-deportation. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) encourages undocumented immigrants to register on the app to receive financial benefits for self-deporting: the amount was initially $1,000, but was later raised to $2,600.

“Home is just a few clicks away! Take advantage of the historic and generous CBP Home Deal we are offering to illegal aliens — a $2,600 exit bonus AND a free flight to your home country!” reads a DHS promotional ad on its X account. The reality, however, is that migrants who use the program can end up detained — not in the vacation settings shown in the DHS post.

“Even if Mireya had used the CBP Home app, it wouldn’t have guaranteed she wouldn’t have ended up detained,” says Rodríguez. “I don’t trust the government. That information you put in will be recorded, and they can use it against you.” For her, the fact that many people who used the program say they never received the promised money only deepens her mistrust.

To use the application, users must provide personal information and upload a photo. DHS promises that among the benefits, “they will be temporarily deprioritized by ICE for detention or enforcement action before their scheduled departure.” The dilemma for those who want to leave is whether providing their data makes it easier for authorities to detain them — or whether, by not using the CBP Home app, they risk being detained like Mireya, when they are already at the airport.

Immigration lawyers are also uncertain about what to recommend to their clients. “Its reliability is questionable,” acknowledges Mary Armistead, an immigration attorney who provides training to immigration law professionals at CLINIC. This firm urges people who want to leave voluntarily to consult an attorney to determine if it is advisable to do so through CBP Home. “The most serious problem we have observed regarding this issue is that people are unaware they are ineligible and yet still try to use the application to access the benefits of the free flight home and the stipend they receive upon returning to their country,” she explains.

In reality, only a minority of migrants qualify for the program: those who have previously had contact with Border Patrol and people who entered through a country‑specific parole program, such as the ones for Ukrainians, Afghans, Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans. But many of the people who choose to self-deport entered the country clandestinely and have no record in the system, meaning they would be providing information the authorities did not previously have.

“If people don’t meet the eligibility requirements, all they’re doing is handing over their information to immigration authorities, who can then take coercive measures against them: detaining them or subjecting them to deportation proceedings,” Armistead warns.

Lawyers also complain that ICE provides detainees in detention centers with unclear information. “We often hear immigration agents provide incomplete or misleading information, so people don’t understand exactly what they are requesting,” the lawyer explains.

One of the benefits DHS advertises for using CBP Home is that migrants will not have to wait five or 10 years to reenter the United States legally, the penalty for those who are deported. However, their deportation cases must be closed before they leave the country. Otherwise, if they leave and cannot attend their court hearing, the 10‑year reentry ban is triggered. In addition, migrant advocates note that although DHS promises that CBP Home facilitates their return, it does not provide any means for them to reenter. Some attorneys, however, advise their clients to use the program to avoid detention, believing the risk decreases if they can show they intend to leave the country by complying with the method promoted by the government.

The government’s lack of transparency regarding deportation statistics makes it impossible to confirm the number of people who have left the country. In December, then-DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that “The Trump administration is shattering historic records with more than 2.5 million illegal aliens leaving the U.S. DHS has deported more than 605,000 illegal aliens and another 1.9 million have self-deported. Since January 20, DHS has arrested more than 595,000 illegal aliens.”

But independent sources believe the numbers are incorrect. “The initial estimate that about 400,000 immigrants had been deported, and a total of around 600,000 deportations were carried out for the full year, may well be accurate. But the initial assertion that 1.6 million immigrants had already self-deported by September was a self-serving fantasy,” wrote Edward Kissam, a migration expert at the Werner-Kohnstamm Family Fund, in a January article for the Center for Immigration Studies. The fact that authorities can’t track the departure of migrants who don’t use the CBP Home app raises doubts about how they’re calculating their figures.

The detention of people as they are about to leave the country — as in Mireya’s case — also casts doubt on the intentions of an administration whose supposed goal is for them to depart. Experts offer a range of explanations: the desire to penalize those who lived in the country illegally; the impossibility of counting them in official statistics at a time when the government boasts of carrying out the largest deportation effort in history; and even the financial interests of certain groups that profit from keeping detainees in custody longer than necessary.

Attorneys, overwhelmed by the sheer number of legal changes introduced since Trump returned to the White House, are trying to understand how the system works and what they should advise their clients. “The truth is that right now there isn’t a better option,” says Rodríguez.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition