Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s comment about “self-deportation” during Monday’s debate in Florida, referring to what others have long called “attrition through enforcement,” has by now drawn an equal share of criticism and cracks.
Among the latest in the cracks department: SelfDeport.org, a spoof site that was in the works before the debate, but which launched yesterday and is now basking in the campaign glow.
The “Patriots for Self-Deportation” behind it advocate removing oneself to the land of one’s ancestors, or as they put it, “the scene of the crime.” From their press release, which quotes a spokesman named Stephen Winters:
“A surprising number of authentic patriots have found in their own genealogical searches that one or more of their ancestors came here or stayed here illegally, and yet continued to make a living in this country and have children who in turn became instant citizens,” said Winters. “Some patriots, faced with this moral dilemma, have decided to set an example for others. Knowing that their own presence in this country is not on moral solid ground, they have decided to demonstrate the highest level of civic dedication and sacrifice, and engage in self-deportation.”
The site even has a “How to Self Deport” section with a list of tips, which starts:
The next step is to decide where to deport to. Sometmes if your family immigrated Illegally to the United States of America long ago, it is hard to decide which country to return to. We suggest returning to the scene of the crime, or where your Illegal ancestor came from.
And unlike the comic self-deportation pioneer Daniel D. Portado, whose hilarious This American Life segment was resurrected on Twitter after the debate, you don’t have to be Latino. On the site, would be “self-deporters” share their stories about plans to return to Poland and Sweden.
Ah, there’s nothing like an election year for comedy.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s line during last night’s debate in Florida about “self-deportation” has drawn its share of attention (and cracks) by now, but the concept he’s talking about isn’t a novel one. Though whether it really works as intended is another question.
Questioned about what he’d do with undocumented immigrants if he doesn’t plan to round them up and deport them, Romney talked about making it impossible for them to get jobs, referencing the federal E-Verify status-check tool used by some employers (and which some states have made mandatory). The idea would be to make life so difficult for undocumented immigrants that they would leave of their own volition, a concept known as “attrition through enforcement,” which advocates of tighter immigration restrictions have supported for years.
It’s this concept that lies at the heart of Arizona’s SB 1070 and similarly strict state laws enacted in other states recently, including laws with an E-Verify component. Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and attorney (and recent Romney backer) who helped draft SB 1070 and similar laws, wrote about attrition through enforcement as an alternative to mass deportations several years ago in a law journal. The article begins:
For years, the public debate about illegal immigration has been gripped by a false dichotomy. We have been told that there are only two choices in addressing the fact that twelve to twenty million aliens are unlawfully present in the United States: either attempt to round them up and remove them all, or grant a massive amnesty and provide all (or virtually all) illegal aliens legal status.
In a piece in Mother Jones related to Romney’s statement, Adam Serwer cites another years-old take on the concept from the immigration-restriction advocacy think tank Center for Immigration Studies and how the “choke points” it refers to have been applied at the state level:
We can see how this concept has been applied in states like Arizona and Alabama, where local authorities have been empowered to act as enforcers of immigration law. Alabama takes the “choke point” theory even more seriously than Arizona—everything from enrolling in school to seeking health treatment has been turned into a so-called “choke-point.”
The piece also cites an interview with Kobach in which he refers to self-deportation as what’s been occurring in Alabama, where unauthorized immigrants have left the state in the wake of its recently enacted anti-illegal immigration law, prompting a labor shortage in the farm industry.
But is what’s happening in fact self-deportation, or are people going elsewhere in the U.S.? While undocumented immigrants are indeed leaving states like Alabama and Georgia, both of which have enacted tough measures with an E-Verify component, there’s still no hard evidence of an exodus from the country, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, which each year tracks the estimated undocumented population. Pew’s studies have shown that this population has declined significantly since 2007, when it peaked at around 12 million, but attribute it more to a steep decline in entries, noting that undocumented immigrants are tending to stay long-term.
The rising share of unauthorized immigrants who have been in the U.S. for a long duration reflects the fact that the sharpest growth in this population occurred during the late 1990s and early 2000s—and that the inflow has slowed down significantly in recent years, as the U.S. economy has sputtered and border enforcement has tightened. It also reflects the fact that relatively few long-duration unauthorized immigrants have returned to their countries of origin.
In any case, Romney’s remark is making the rounds. Some of the attention on Twitter has been of the less-serious sort, especially given Romney’s familial ties to Mexico. The Romney parody Twitter alter-ego @Mexican Mitt tweeted: “I’M SELF DEPORTING TO MY RANCHO, for the VICTORY PARTY! Ajuua!”
And fans of self-described “noted Hispanic self-deportationist” Daniel D. Portado (@DanielDportado) tweeted out links to a comic gem from the vault of This American Life in which Ira Glass interviewed D. Portado about – what else - his “self-deportation” movement.
During last night’s debate, D. Portado tweeted: “I invented Self Deportation, please remember this on your way out.”
