self-deportation

plural self-deportations

1. countableuncountableA voluntary emigration by members of an unwanted or illegal population, often as a result of policies that make staying in their country of residence difficult.

   As mentioned earlier, Romney said that he would address the issue of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States through a policy of “self-deportation.”

   2014, Matt Barreto, Gary Segura, Latino America, →ISBN

   5 more examples

   Doak encouraged local immigration officers, law enforcement agencies, and repatriation-sympathetic newspapers to join forces to publicize deportation raids, frightening many Mexicans into self-deportation.

   2007, Dan Kanstroom, Deportation Nation, →ISBN, page 218

   But in a show of one of the lucid flashes common to dementia, Fabian executed a document in which he stated he was not requesting a ticket for self-deportation, but only for a visit to Nigeria.

   2011, John M. O. Igbokwe, A Broken Mission, →ISBN, page 8

   Even noted opponents of convict colonialism such as Alexander Merensky noted that the utility of transportation was already well understood by those amongst the urban poor who had, he argued, resorted to 'self-deportation' through mass emigration to better their lives.

   2015, Matthew P. Fitzpatrick, Purging the Empire: Mass Expulsions in Germany, 1871-1914, →ISBN, page 24

   Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is launching the CBP Home app with a self-deportation reporting feature for aliens illegally in the country.

   2025 March 10, “DHS Launches CBP Home App with Self-Deport Reporting Feature”, in Department of Homeland Security

   The renamed app, announced Monday and now called CBP Home, is part of the administration’s campaign to encourage “self-deportations, ” touted as an easy and cost-effective way to nudge along President Donald Trump’s push to deport millions of immigrants without legal status.

   2025 March 10, Associated Press, “Homeland Security overhauls its asylum phone app. Now it’s for ‘self-deportation’”, in Chicago Tribune