What A Day - Why Some Migrants Say They'll Self-Deport

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

The Trump administration's relentless assault on immigrants keeps marching on. Over the weekend, federal officials said they arrested nearly 800 people in Florida during a four-day immigration enforcement operation. ICE also deported three children who are U.S. citizens on Friday, including one who’d been diagnosed with cancer. As the White House widens its brutal crackdown on migrants, some say they’ll do what Trump wants them to do: leave the country and the lives they built here behind. Rebecca Plevin, who covers equity for The Los Angeles Times, tells us why.And in headlines: Pope Francis was laid to rest in Rome, President Trump admits Russian President Vladimir Putin may not want to stop attacking Ukraine, and the White House restored visa registrations for thousands of international students.Show Notes:Read Rebecca Plevin's story - https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-04-18/immigrants-self-deport-rather-than-risk-being-marched-out-like-criminalsSubscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Monday, April 28th. I'm Josie Duffy Rice in for Jane Costin, and this is What A Day, the show that rejects the idea that, quote, Christopher Columbus is so back, as the White House claimed via tweet. He's not back. Not at all. He's dead, Pope Francis is laid to rest, and President Donald Trump admits that maybe Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn't want to stop attacking Ukraine.

Who knew? But first, there's more news in Trump's assault on immigrants. On Friday, FBI agents arrested Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan after she allegedly, quote, intentionally misdirected federal agents. The agency claimed she told an undocumented immigrant to leave through a side door of the courtroom as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents waited in the main hallway. The arrest also highlights the Trump administration's increasing animosity towards the judiciary. Then on Saturday, ICE officials announced the arrest of almost 800 people in Florida in just four days. They called the mass arrests a, quote, first-of-its-kind

partnership between state and federal partners, keeping America safe by using local law enforcement to help ICE deport people instead of, you know, solving crimes, for example. And lastly, Trump's assault on immigration has, as many warned, begun to directly ensnare American citizens. In a shocking violation of their rights, three U.S. citizens were deported on Friday. All three were children, ages 2, 4, and 7. Administration officials say they were deported with their

mothers. As if that wasn't bad enough, the Washington Post reports that one of the children has stage 4 cancer and was deported, quote, without medication or the ability to contact their doctors. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked about the deportation Sunday on Meet the Press. If those children are U.S. citizens, they can come back into the United States if there's their father or someone here who wants to assume them. But ultimately who was deported was their mother,

who was their mothers who were here illegally. The children just went with their mothers. But it wasn't like, you guys make it sound like ICE agents kicked down the door and grabbed the two year old and threw him on an airplane. That's misleading. So on their face, Rubio's comments might sound reasonable, except in the case of at least one of those kids,

the two-year-old, her father was desperately petitioning the court to keep her here in the US, and he alleges that ICE agents only let him speak to the girl's mother for about one minute while in custody. Is this keeping America safe, deporting citizens, deporting children with cancer? When people warned that Trump's deported all-class policies violate the Constitution, that they would inevitably hurt not just non-citizens, but citizens too,

this is what they meant. As far as constitutional violations go, deporting citizens without any due process is like very, very high on the list. But this constant barrage of horrifying news about deportations is by design. The administration wants to send the message that if you're an undocumented immigrant, you are a target. Also, if you're related to an undocumented immigrant, you might be a target. And if they hit that message hard enough, they're hoping that people will just choose to leave on their own. They're even running ads on TV and social media asking

people to leave rather than risk being deported. If you are here illegally, you're next. You will be fined nearly $1,000 a day, imprisoned and deported. You will never return. But if you register using our CBP Home app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally. Do what's right. Leave now. This actually isn't a new idea in Republican politics. It's been around for more than a decade, at least. Mitt Romney even floated the idea during a Republican primary debate

when he was running for president in 2012. The answer is self-deportation, which is people decide that they can do better by going home because they can't find work here because they don't have legal documentation to allow them to work here. You can actually hear people laughing as Romney says this, which shows you how much things have changed since then. Because amid the Trump administration's brutal immigration crackdown, people are actually doing it now. Self-deporting. Or at the very least, planning

to. That's according to Rebecca Plevin. She covers equity for the Los Angeles Times and she spoke with a few people who say that for them, it's too risky to stay. Rebecca, welcome to What A Day. Thanks for having me. So, the Trump administration has made a very public push to get people to, as they put it, self-deport. They've been running TV commercials in English and Spanish, encouraging people to leave the country.

But I think it might be surprising to a lot of our listeners that people are actually choosing to do this. So why? Why are some migrants choosing to leave the US on their own? I think in a word, fear. I think people are really fearful right now. One thing I heard from an immigration advocate I spoke with is that right now people are really fearful right now. You know, one thing I heard from an immigration advocate I spoke with is that right now, people are saying

that they'd rather leave with something than leave with nothing, meaning they'd rather be able to, you know, get their affairs in order and pack their things. You know, everything they have amassed in this country and be able to leave, you know, on their own terms rather than be deported and, you know, have their lives left behind.

You spoke with a woman named Celeste. on their own terms, rather than be deported and have their lives left behind. You spoke with a woman named Celeste. We're not going to use her full name. You didn't in your story about this either. And she came here decades ago from Peru. Can you tell us a little bit more about her? Yeah, sure. So Celeste came here as a young woman.

She was 19. She overstayed her tourist visa. And then in Peru, she had studied graphic design, but when she came here, she wasn't able to work in that field. So she's worked cleaning hotels and cleaning offices. She's always paid her taxes with the hopes that there would be immigration reform and she could prove that she'd been here paying taxes. She built a life.

She has friends. She was taking community college courses. But I think since Trump came into office, that American dream has imploded over the years. And she's just become really fearful. You know, she has seen the images of immigrants being deported on deportation flights, shackled like criminals, she said, and she's really fearful that she would be deported in the same way. And so she's made the decision that she's going to keep working for a couple of months, save some money, and then return to Peru

by the end of the year. And what does she think there is for her in Peru? Why is that actually a better option than worrying here? I think she's staying here. I think she feels like she has really lost her freedom. She doesn't feel like she can live her normal life. She can't go out hiking anymore. She does not comfortable eating in restaurants,

going out dancing. She doesn't even want to enroll in online classes for fear that, you know, she'd have to share her name and address. You know, here's someone who's been paying her taxes and she's worried that now with the internal revenue service, sharing information with immigration and and Customs Enforcement that she could be targeted.

You know, she just feels very vulnerable and exposed. And I think at some point people think like, that's not a way to live. I'd rather return home on my own accord, of my own accord. Yeah, I mean, and she's obviously not alone. You spoke to another woman, Elena, who also says she plans to move back to Mexico by the end of the year,

even though she's been in the US for decades, and she has kids and grandkids who are US citizens. So can you tell us what she told you? Yeah, sure. So Elena came here and she has three kids, two were born in the US, she now has two grandchildren, but she also became very fearful. You know, she was driving along Interstate 8,

you know, which is along the southern border of the country. And she saw an immigration checkpoint. She saw people being handcuffed and detained. And it just broke her heart and made her really fearful. You know, she goes shopping in her own neighborhood in Southern California. And an employee, a store employee told her, you know, if you don't have papers, don't go out. And I think she just feels so fearful right now. It's almost made her physically sick. And so she and her husband, they do have five acres of land in Chiapas, where they're from, in southern Mexico.

And they are also planning to return home and try to build a ranch and, you know, grow crops and raise animals. But for her, what's really heartbreaking is leaving her grandchildren behind. She's gonna leave two grandchildren, she'll be thousands of miles away, doesn't know if she'll, if when she'll be able to see them again. And as a grandmother,

I think that's really heartbreaking for her. Yeah, devastating. So neither of them have left yet. And I wonder, did you get the sense that there's anything that could change their minds? That there's anything that could keep them here? You know, that's a great question. I think neither of them felt like they had a route

to gain legal status. I think they had explored their options. If there was a way that they could gain legal status, I think they would consider staying here because they have built lives here. But absent that, they seemed like they had really wrestled with the decision and had come to this tough decision for them. And both of them live in California, which as a state kind of ostensibly says it wants

to protect undocumented immigrants. And there they have more access to social services, et cetera, than they might other places. So what does that say about kind of the state's ability or limited ability to kind of stand in the way of the administration's immigration crackdown? Yeah, I mean, California is a state where, I reported recently on a survey that found that

a majority of Californians still support providing like many social services to unauthorized immigrants. But immigration is a federal issue and I think the policies and the rhetoric coming out of Washington are doing what the Trump administration is intending them to do. I spoke with one professor from UC Davis who said that these policies taken together are designed to strike fear and terror into immigrant communities and basically say, we're going to get you, we're going to find you.

And I think that message has really resonated in communities despite being in a place like California. LESLIE KENDRICK You mentioned also that you'd spoken with some immigrants' rights advocates who are also hearing from people saying that they want to leave. What are they telling people who say that? Do they have advice? Are they giving guidance on that? Did you get a sense? Yeah, I think it's a multi-pronged answer for them.

I think they still feel like empowering the community, making sure people know their rights is really important. But at the end of the day, I think these immigrant rights advocates also know that, like, they want the best for their community and they know that, like, people know what's going to make them feel safe and secure. And if that's leaving, like, that's their decision and the immigrant rights advocates won't tell them, don't do that. You know, I also spoke with one advocate who said that he will take off his immigrant rights executive director hat and tell people,

I don't have any control over whether you get pulled over by ICE or border patrol, whether they come to your workplace. I can't guarantee that's not going to happen. He says, but if it does happen, we want you to know that you have a community behind you, that this immigrant rights community will fight for you. So it's, yeah, it's a multi-pronged answer.

Yeah. So obviously this is Trump's second term. He made similar threats of mass deportation in his first term. His administration infamously separated kids from their parents at the border, et cetera. For the people that you spoke to, what is making this time different? I think it's the speed at which policies are changing. I think policies are changing swiftly. And I think, you know, in Southern California,

people are also seeing a lot more border patrol agents on the road. They're seeing more ice agents. And so it's like this fire hose of news and information. Every day there's more coming out of Washington. They're getting it through the news, they're getting it through social media. And then they're seeing it on the streets.

I think there's a lot of confusion also, like things are changing, but people don't know if it impacts them or not, or how it's gonna impact them. So yeah, I think it's that fire hose hose and it's just leaving people feeling very vulnerable and exposed and uncomfortable. So I just have one more question, which is the White House has said to people, leave on your own accord, self-deport,

and you might have the opportunity to return legally later. Do you get the sense that the people that you're speaking to really believe that or hope for that? I think they hope for that. And I'm not even sure that they've heard it through a policy promise. But I think that, you know, because they have such like family ties here, I think there is hope that, you know, if they leave now rather than get deported, that it will be

easier to come back. You know, Celeste mentioned that she doesn't want to be sent home after all this time with a big deported stamp. Elena, the grandmother we talked about, she really wants to be able to see her grandchildren again and you know even if it takes 10 years she'd rather leave now, get her affairs in order, and then be able to come back legally to be able to see her grandchildren. So yeah, I think that is part of it that they would rather leave now so that it's easier to come back legally

than be deported and have restrictions on when they can come back. Rebecca, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. It was great speaking with you. That was my conversation with Rebecca Plevin, who covers equity for the Los Angeles Times. We'll link to her story in our show notes.

We'll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you liked the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. What a Day is brought to you by Nutrifol. Did you know that more than half of women experience menopausal hair thinning? It's more common than you think. Chances are you know somebody going through it. Nutrifol Women's Balance is a daily hair growth supplement physician formulated for women 45 and up, targeting the key root causes of menopausal hair thinning, like shifting hormones, stress, and aging. Nutrifol is the number one dermatologist-recommended

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A public funeral service for the late Pontiff was held at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Crowds of mourners gathered outside to watch the procession. The Vatican said more than a quarter million people attended. Several world leaders came to pay their respects, including President Donald Trump. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Ray delivered the eulogy. Here he is, interpreted by France 24 News, speaking about how Francis was a champion for the marginalized.

He was a pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone. Francis' body was buried at St. Mary Major's Basilica in Rome during a private ceremony later in the day. He's the first pope to be buried outside the Vatican in centuries. Cardinals are preparing to elect a new pope through a process called the conclave. It's expected to begin in early May. And on the sidelines of Francis' funeral, President Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday.

Zelensky said in a post on Twitter, it was a, quote, good meeting, and that he's hoping for results on a full and unconditional ceasefire. And while the exact details of their conversation aren't known, something seems to have shifted Trump's mind a bit, because in a lengthy post on True Social after the meeting, Trump scolded Russian President Vladimir Putin

for attacking civilian areas in Ukraine. He went on to say, quote, It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war. He's just tapping me along and has to be dealt with differently. Yeah, dude. I've been trying to tell you, man. Trump elaborated on his post Sunday outside Air Force One. He said he sensed Zelensky had a different attitude.

I see him as calmer. I think he understands the picture. And I think he wants to make a deal. Trump also suggested this weekend he's weighing banking and other sanctions as possible consequences for Russia. Secretary of State Rubio was asked about the possibility of more Russia sanctions on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. We have multiple options, frankly, to address this

and to deal with all of this, but we don't want to get to that point. This is still not the time. I think what the president is saying and has been saying for some time now is he is aware that he has these options. People ask him about it all the time, but what he really wants is a peace deal. Thank you for that non-answer, Secretary. Rubio also said this is going to be a, quote very critical week and that the US has to make a decision

about whether mediating peace talks is quote, an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in. His comments come as Ukrainian officials said Sunday, a barrage of Russian drone attacks and airstrikes across the country killed at least four people. In a big reversal, the White House restored visa registrations for thousands of international students who'd had them terminated in recent weeks.

The Justice Department revealed the decision Friday during a federal court hearing. Attorneys said more than 4,000 students would have their visa records reinstated in a government database used to track them. The earlier mass purging of records appeared to target students with minor legal infractions, but in some cases there was no clear reason for the revocation. Many students feared they had lost their immigration status entirely when they learned their visa records had been terminated, often with little explanation. Dozens of them sued, and several judges ordered the Trump administration to reverse course.

But lest you think the administration is going soft all of a sudden, a Justice Department lawyer said in Court Friday that immigration authorities are developing a new policy that would allow them to review and purge the records of international students. Meaning that those same students who just had their visa registrations restored could have them revoked again in the future. This week, President Trump will mark 100 days back in office. And he'll do it in a historic fashion, with some of the worst poll numbers for a sitting president this early into his term.

A chorus of new polls show a majority of voters are not exactly singing his praises, unlike any issue. According to a CNN's SSRS poll released Sunday, Trump's approval rating sits at 41%, the lowest for a newly elected president dating all the way back to at least the 50s and Dwight Eisenhower. Trump even scored lower this time around than he did in his first term when he lost a popular vote. Look at him, he's just smashing records left and right. And that was not all, an ABC News-Washington Post-Ipsos poll found similar results. Just 39% of respondents said they approve

of how Trump is handling his job, and 55% said they disapprove. Per that survey, a majority of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy and our relations with other countries. And people also aren't feeling too hot about tariffs or the flowing stock market or the way Trump is going about managing the federal government.

And the president fared little better in a New York Times-CNA college poll with a 42% approval rating. That poll also showed him underwater on every issue they asked voters about, from immigration to the Russia-Ukraine war. But wait, there's more. An NBC News poll found Gen Z voters are not super keen on him either. Here's the network's chief data analyst Steve Prunacki on Sunday. It's basically two to one disapproval among Gen Z.

This is a more anti-Trump, Trump hostile generation than we see in the other generations. This extends to Trump policies, trade, tariffs, again, overall not that popular. And while most Republicans are refusing to leave Trump's side, an AP Nork poll found that only about half say their president is focused on the right priorities. I gotta say, it takes real work to be this unpopular, this quickly. And that's the news. INTRO Before we go, trans people are under attack by weirdos who think trans people shouldn't exist and billionaire sex pests should.

Stand up for the trans community in a trans people have always existed t-shirt or tote at the Cricut store. Show your defiance with a statement that isn't actually radical at all. Head to Cricut.com slash store to shop. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, rain some hate on Donald Trump in an opinion poll, and tell your friends to listen. If you are into reading, and not just all the ways Trump's 100-day polling numbers

are historically terrible, like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter, so check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe. I'm Josie Duffy Rice, and I am more popular than Donald Trump. Water Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded in a mix by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Emily Four. Our producer is Michelle Alloy. We had production help today from Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters, and Julia Claire.

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