ICE plans raids against undocumented immigrants who self-deport: why is this necessary?

The Trump administration intends to deploy immigration agents to the US-Mexico border to detain undocumented immigrants attempting to return home without permission during the Christmas holidays, according to an ICE memo. Yahoo! News.

According to the plan, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at land ports of entry on the southern border will work in conjunction with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) agents as part of "targeted operations." They intend to detain individuals who, after being in the United States without legal grounds, attempt to "leave without authorization."

The plan involves agents stopping buses passing through ports of entry into Mexico.

Travelers without immigration violations or criminal records, and without evidence of a threat to public safety, are allowed to be considered "voluntarily returning" to their home countries. The rest will be processed according to their existing immigration cases, which, according to the document, entails their detention and formal deportation proceedings.

On the subject: Deportation from the US: A Complete Guide to Protecting Your Rights and Challenging Decisions from an Immigration Lawyer

Officials have dubbed this initiative "Operation Irish Goodbye"—a reference to the practice of quietly leaving a bar or party without saying goodbye to friends. The document does not specify a precise timeframe for the operation's launch.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which includes ICE, said the agency "does not confirm planned operations," but added: "It makes sense that we need to know who is entering and who is leaving our country."

He also accused former President Joe Biden of allowing migrants to "invade our country."

"Under President Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the agency has secured our borders and ports of entry to ensure that no unauthorized alien enters or leaves the United States without proper vetting by law enforcement," the spokesperson said.

The administration is encouraging undocumented people to return home voluntarily, in particular by using a government app to report their "intent to leave." It's even offering "exit bonuses" of $1000. A mission aimed at detaining migrants who voluntarily leave the country may seem at odds with these efforts.

ICE's page on the so-called self-deportation process advises people in the country illegally to "leave on their own initiative."

"If you're in the United States illegally, you don't have to wait for ICE to arrest you," government officials advise. "Instead, you can leave on your own terms."

Muzaffar Chishti, an immigration expert at the Migration Policy Institute, stated that detaining people leaving the country on their own could be aimed at creating consequences for those with active immigration cases or criminal records. Formal removal procedures could prohibit reentry for several years or permanently, and could even make reentry a crime.

However, placing such migrants into deportation proceedings, rather than allowing them to quietly depart south by bus, will give them the opportunity to seek legal remedies, including applying for asylum.

Operation Irish Goodbye may be connected with the desire to increase statistics and highlight the effectiveness of Trump's deportation campaign.

The president, pressuring his administration officials to deliver figures consistent with his campaign rhetoric, promised to expel undocumented migrants on an unprecedented scale. Migrants who leave the country undetected through land ports are not included in official expulsion statistics.

The administration has stated that it is on track to deport nearly 600,000 people by the end of Trump's first year in office. If that happens, they will still fall short of the 685,000 deportations the Biden administration carried out in fiscal year 2024, when, according to the Migration Policy Institute, the number of illegal border crossings was much higher.

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Chishti said his organization estimates that the Trump administration is unlikely to reach the Biden-era expulsion levels of last year. He doubts such a border operation will significantly increase those numbers.

"They're clearly getting desperate," Chishti concluded. "You can't achieve high rates by deporting people who already want to leave, because there aren't many of them."

The White House echoes this sentiment: its deportation campaign is aimed at ridding the country of "the worst of the worst." However, recent data shows that the majority of migrants detained by ICE during large-scale, high-profile operations have no criminal records.

For example, in Washington, D.C., according to a New York Times analysis, 84% of ICE detainees have no criminal charges in the U.S., and only 2% have a conviction for a violent crime.

Read also on ForumDaily:

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