Language Matters. So Why Are We Using the Term ‘Self Deport’? 

Self-deporters are described as undocumented immigrants who willingly choose to return to their country of origin, and lately, they’ve been the subject of numerous articles, including by The Atlanta Journal Constitution and The New York Times. The self deporter is sad, hopeless, and, essentially, walking into an abyss, throwing their dreams to the wayside.  

But what if we’re getting the story wrong? 

Although many have rightly criticized the Trump administration’s Orwellian policies on immigration, which have resulted in the detention and deportation of people without criminal records and even some US citizens, fewer are calling out how both the administration and the media’s use of the word self-deportation serve the greater, more nefarious purpose of further dehumanizing immigrants and removing agency from their choices.

Project Homecoming, announced in May 2025, attempts to financially incentivize immigrants to voluntarily leave the US while also punishing those who choose to stay with hefty fines. Since Donald Trump took office again in January, undocumented immigrant communities across the US have taken a hit, with businesses reporting drops not seen since the pandemic, and schools seeing higher rates of absences. Throughout both official government communication and US press alike, the word self deport is used to describe those who repatriate.

Self-deportation has long been a dream of people who oppose the presence of immigrants in the United States.  Policies of proponents for self deportation include everything from requiring proof of citizenship for school enrollment to prohibiting undocumented immigrants from using state-run hospitals.  The idea of people leaving willingly is much easier to deal with than spending time and resources rounding people up, and paying for flights, not to mention the fact that it is better PR than having to round up families and hold them in detention centers.  The optics are better.  The project, for those who promote self-deportation, then is to make life so difficult that people choose to leave.

But, while self-deportation might be the dream of  some GOP leaders, including Mitt Romney, who was a vocal proponent of this strategy in 2012, repatriation is a slightly different conversation. 

So, what’s the difference? 

For starters, repatriation has a different connotation than self-deportation. Self-deportation frames immigrants as victims of a system, and makes the age old mistake of making the United States the center of the universe.  Repatriation implies choice and autonomy, but most importantly, it establishes that while immigrants may not be citizens of the US, they are citizens of some other country, and have rights as such. While not every immigrant has the privilege to be able to repatriate due to a number of reasons, those who do are not simply giving up.  They may very well be opening the door to new opportunities.

The trend of migrants returning willingly to their countries of origin is nothing new.  

Maggie Laredo, a former DREAMer whose story was featured in the anthology, Los Otros Dreamers, returned to her hometown of San Luis Potosi, Mexico after learning that she was undocumented in high school.  Laredo returned to Mexico set on furthering her education, and once there, helped found the collective, Otros Dreamers en Accion, in 2015 to help those who have returned to Mexico after growing up in the US. 

Similarly, Joshua Gibran Casillas Amador, a graduate of the University of Monterrey, returned to Mexico after realizing the hardships he would face along his journey to becoming a doctor if he remained in the United States.  Casillas describes the fear of being caught and deported in his adopted hometown of Houston, Texas.  Casillas returned to Mexico after Trump was elected for the first time in 2016.  Casillas, along with four other students in similar situations, received support from world renown Mexican film director, Alejandro Iñárritu, who paid the tuition of these students at the University of Monterrey. 

“The future that I dreamed about was kind of over,” Casillas lamented in an interview with CGTN America in 2018.  According to his LinkedIn profile, Casillas graduated from the University of Monterrey in 2017 and is currently a surgeon in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. 

Simply put, the use of the word “self-deportation” feeds into the rhetoric that immigrants have no agency or rights.  There is no such thing as self-deportation, and to imply otherwise is to legitimize an oppressive immigration system set on criminalizing the migration and movement of people from the global south.  But there is such a thing as repatriation, and the Mexican government in particular is leading the way in facilitating the return of Mexican citizens with dignity and respect. 

President Caludia Sheinbaum, who took office in the fall of 2024, has been a vocal supporter of creating systems to support Mexicans who have returned to their homeland.  In January 2025, the Mexican government launched a program, Mexico Te Abraza, or ‘Mexico Embraces You’, to welcome those who have repatriated, by choice or by force.  

The program includes the implementation of ten welcome centers along the border, which support repatriated individuals by giving them food and water, information about job and educational opportunities, and support for elder adults who qualify for a pension, among other things.  The program has coordinated buses that transport people from the border to their end destinations in Mexico along with $100 USD to support repatriated individuals on their journey back home. 

Welcoming repatriated individuals back home isn’t just about goodwill, either – it can also be a strategic method for a country to develop its technology and consequently, its economy.   

In 2018, director of development at the University of Monterrey, Monica Manzanilla, told CGTN America that Mexico is set to benefit from America’s failure to recognize the talents of so-called Dreamers.  The same year, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Luis Videgaray Caso, called the return of DREAMers “A huge win for Mexico, and a huge loss for the United States. 

President Sheinbaum’s “Plan Mexico”, an economic development plan, places a heavy emphasis on bolstering the Mexican economy by supporting innovation. 

“We know that a lot of what we buy abroad could be made at home, with the creativity, ingenuity and determination that characterizes Mexicans,” President Sheinbaum said in April.  President Sheinbaum has talked about the need to bring back Mexican entrepreneurs living abroad.  For those who have repatriated, by choice or by force, the Mexican government is at least acknowledging the value that individuals are bringing back with them. 

Choosing to leave a country you have called home, even if it is without official documentation, is never easy.  Many immigrants left their countries of origin due to crime, lack of economic opportunity, and a desire for their children to have more opportunity than they did. 

But America is no longer the country it once was.  Children are less likely to move socioeconomic classes than they were fifty years ago.  The US has become less competitive in education compared to other developed nations, school shootings have skyrocketed in recent years, and political corruption has grown significantly since 2012.  Moreover, a recent survey of more than 500 political scientists found that a majority thought the United States is quickly moving towards an authoritarian state.  Though the US was once a country people fled to, America may now become a place where people may be considering fleeing from. 

In a video released in February on the Mexican government’s official Instagram page, recently repatriated individuals are met at an airport in Chiapas by the National Institute of Migration.  One man steps off the plane and, in tears, kisses the ground.  “I’m happy because I’m in my country and my family awaits me,” the man explains.  “I kissed the ground because I adore Mexico, and today I know that Mexico is the greatest country in the world.” 

We have a responsibility for ensuring that all individuals are talked about with respect and dignity.  So let’s stop legitimizing the narrative of self-deportation and let’s begin calling this what it is – repatriation.