Is the Self-Deporting Beginning? Probably Not.

By Ward Clark | 5:30 PM on January 17, 2025



AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File

The Trump administration will be taking back the reins of power in only a matter of hours now. Policies regarding illegal immigration are about to take a 180-degree turn. Tom "The Hammer" Homan will be the point man in enforcing immigration law, arranging mass deportations of the hordes here illegally, and closing down the border.

There are some indications that some of the people here illegally have seen the writing on the wall and are beginning to self-deport. But is it enough to make a difference?

Probably not. That's not the kind of self-deporting described here:

Michel Bérrios left the United States a few days before the new year, giving President-elect Donald Trump's campaign for mass deportations a small victory before they even started.

A former leader of a Nicaraguan student uprising, Bérrios had been in the U.S. legally, with nearly a year remaining under President Joe Biden's unprecedented use of humanitarian parole authority for citizens of certain vulnerable countries. But harsh talk during the U.S. election campaign filled her with anxious memories of hiding from authorities back home.

Interestingly, this story notes that Michel Bérrios was in the country legally.

Bérrios had been living legally with her cousin in California, east of San Francisco, working at the front desk of an auto repair shop with Trump supporters, but she knew it was temporary — especially once Trump was elected. Anti-immigrant comments by her colleagues increased, and her discomfort grew.

Bérrios, assuming she was in the country legally, as the story claims, would have had nothing to fear. Nobody is talking about exporting people who are in the country legally. This is shameful fear-mongering.

There may well be some people who, looking at the incoming administration and their plans, may decide that their chances are better south of the border. But it won't be enough to matter. The overwhelming majority of the people who are in the country illegally, including (maybe especially) those who are known criminals and/or on terror watch lists, will have to be found, arrested, and deported.

So why note this piece about one person who isn't on the radar, "self-deporting" to Ireland, of all places?

Because, as the Trump administration's immigration crackdown gets underway, this is precisely the kind of emotional hand-wringing we can expect out of the legacy media, the leftist commentariat, and the Democrats.

There will be little or no mention from that triad of stupidity of the hundreds of MS-13 and Tren de Aragua criminals caught and sent back; there will be little or no mention of the disposition of all the unaccompanied, military-aged men from Iran, Yemen, and even China who will likewise be found, detained and sent back.

The reporting will all be like this: A sad-eyed tale of one refugee from a totalitarian regime, who was actually in the United States legally, and who left after a panic attack brought on by Orange Man Bad.

Fortunately, you have us here at RedState and our Townhall sister sites to bring you, as the late, great Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story.

https://redstate.com/wardclark/2025/...y-not-n2184487