My note to a free press reporter who wrote about ice raids

By An Old Friend
tuesday, june 10, 2025 at 09:59:21 p.m. edt

My note to a free press reporter who wrote about ice raids

Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2025 at 07:52:11 PM MDT

Subject: "your report on ice efforts in Washington DC

https://www.thefp.com/p/what-i-saw-during-an-ice-operation

Hello, Ms. Rowley.

In your article linked above, you express skepticism over the feasibility of target numbers for removal ("deportation") of illegal aliens.  Based upon what you witnessed, the prospects are daunting indeed.  There is, however, a multiplying factor that can make a large difference (although for the entire illegal-alien population, I think the project remains daunting).

The multiplying factor is self-deportation, and you're likely aware of it, at least via recent news about how the CBP-One app has been repurposed to encourage self-removals, by the U.S. paying for the necessary international transportation plus a $1,000 stipend per self-deportee.  

It's not a new idea: Self-deportation actually happened, spurred by Operation Wetback, in 1954.  Something like 100,000 illegal aliens working in the southwestern states were forcibly removed.  Seeing the handwriting on the wall, another 600,000, or so, left on their own.  You can read about this in a memorable Christian Science Monitor article from 2006, "How Eisenhower solved illegal border crossings from Mexico."

The rationale for those who departed voluntarily is clear: It's better to systematically wrap up one's affairs and leave than to fear a bolt-from-the-blue encounter with law enforcement, immediate detention, and swift removal.  It was demonstrated in action again following 9/11 when several thousand Pakistani illegal aliens in the northeast U.S. were removed, prompting about 15,000 others to depart on their own, either for home or to Canada.

This strategy to discourage and steadily decrease illegal presence has been dubbed "attrition by enforcement" by the Center for Immigration Studies.  An example of their writings on the subject is here:   https://cis.org/sites/cis.org/files/articles/2005/back605.pdf

There was an example just days ago of how the pressure of ramped-up enforcement operations impacts incentives, as reported in a Washington Post article about ICE raids at Home Depot stores in Los Angeles:

"I'm not sure it's worth it anymore," said Abraham, the man who had shouted "La migra!" to the other day laborers alongside Angel. The Nicaraguan immigrant [sic] said he would continue working to support his young son but the constant threat of detention and deportation is weighing on him. "La vida aqui ya no sirve." Life here doesn't work anymore.

Emphasis in original.

Ciao,