Opinion

Should I self-deport?

IMMIGRATION CORNER - Michael J. Gurfinkel - The Philippine Star

May 11, 2025 | 12:00am

The Trump administration recently announced a “historic opportunity for illegal aliens to receive both financial and travel assistance to facilitate travel back to their home country through the CBP Home app.” A person who self-deports receives a one-way ticket to their home country and $1,000 once it is confirmed that they, in fact, returned to their home country.

The Trump administration describes self-deportation as a “dignified way to leave the US and will allow illegal aliens to avoid being encountered by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)… [and] may help preserve the option for an illegal alien to re-enter the United States legally in the future.”

The question many people are asking is whether they should take this offer from the Trump administration and self-deport. They discuss how they are living in fear, traumatized and afraid to go outside out of fear of being picked up by ICE, whether it’s at home, in front of their children or at their workplace, and then taken to the airport in shame.

While people should make their own decisions, and I express no opinion concerning those decisions, I want to give you additional information to consider in connection with making that decision. Self-deportation could have grave and permanent consequences.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) issued a statement about this self-deportation offer, calling it a “deeply misleading and unethical trick.” AILA further states that the self-deportation offer is “deceptive and gives people the impression there are no consequences, such as being barred from returning in the future.”

Here are some factors to think about:

• If a person self-deports under this offer, they could trigger the 3/10-year bar, banning them from returning to the US for up to 10 years. This law states that if a person has been out of status for more than six months and departs the US, they are subject to the 3/10-year bar, unless they qualify for a waiver.

• If a person self-deports, how would they be able to return to the US? Clearly, they would never qualify for a visitor or student visa, having overstayed on their original trip. They would need to have some kind of immigrant visa petition by either an employer or a family member that was approved and the priority date is current.

• A person may be on the verge of being able to legalize in the US and will forfeit that opportunity through self-deportation. For example, what if they are married to a green card holder who was about to naturalize and therefore enabling them to get a green card in the US? What if they have a 20-year-old child born in the US, who could petition them for a green card in the US upon reaching the age of 21? If they self-deport, they lose the ability to adjust status in the US and trigger the 3/10-year bar.

• ICE cannot simply pick you up and take you to the airport. You would first have to be placed in deportation proceedings and have the opportunity to present your case in front of a judge, and you can have an attorney represent you. Maybe you have avenues to legalize, which you would forfeit if you self-deported. One such defense or claim for relief could be cancellation of removal, where you can ask the judge for a green card if you have been in the US for at least 10 years, are of good moral character and have a parent, child or spouse who is a US citizen or green card holder who would suffer extreme and exceptionally unusual hardship if you’re deported. You could not pursue this claim for relief if you self-deported.

• Most people fearful of the Trump administration went through and survived his first term without rushing to the airport to self-deport. What’s changed from when he was president during his first term that has caused a person to be traumatized?

• Perhaps soon there could be an amnesty in the US for people who are still here. If you depart, you may not be eligible for that amnesty. To be clear, there is no amnesty now, and nothing to apply for at this time.

As AILA stated, which I fully agree with, “no one should accept this [offer] without first obtaining good legal advice from an immigration attorney or other qualified representative.” In other words, before you make that monumental decision to self-deport, consult with an attorney to see if there are other ways or options versus perhaps a lifelong, one-way trip, never to be able to return to the US.

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