Across Santa Clara County, a new phenomenon is happening: immigrants are choosing to self-deport.
It’s something immigration attorney Richard Hobbs has never seen in his 35-year career. There’s only been two people so far who have contacted his office to inform him of their decision — but Hobbs said other attorneys have told him people are opting to deport themselves in light of the current political climate.
“They don’t want to live in fear,” Hobbs told San José Spotlight. “People ask, ‘Am I safe?’ People are not going to the store to get the food they need.”
It’s not clear how many immigrants have already left Santa Clara County, but they are a vital part of the region’s fabric. Immigrants make up more than 765,000 residents in the county — more than one-third of the population — with roughly 134,000 undocumented individuals. They are the people harvesting fruits and vegetables in the sweltering heat, hammering together the frame of a house and scrubbing hotel floors.
Community organizer Tatiana Villaseñor-Carrillo said the exiting of undocumented immigrants and people staying home due to fears of being detained by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could touch every part of the county.
“(The impact) is going to be with your food sources, basic services,” Villaseñor-Carrillo told San José Spotlight. “We probably will see more school closures because people are going to be scared to send their kids to school. Venues aren’t filling up the way that they were six months ago. It’s impacting all these industries.”
Villaseñor-Carrillo said the messaging coming out of the White House is a contributing factor to people leaving. In March, the Department of Homeland Security launched a multimillion-dollar campaign — using social media, text messages and radio and television ads — encouraging people to get out and warning them of being fined for every day they are in the U.S.
Advocates say they see the impact of the administration’s fear tactics, with fewer people frequenting grocery stores and businesses, emptier streets in East San Jose and sparse showings for community events.
However, Jeremy Barousse, director of policy and organizing for nonprofit Amigos de Guadalupe, said there haven’t been large sweeps of immigrants in the community like in Los Angeles. Most ICE activity in Santa Clara County has been targeted toward certain individuals, he said. Though there’s been talk of people thinking about deporting themselves, Barousse isn’t aware of anyone who has actually done so.
Last month, the San Jose City Council unanimously approved $1 million to bolster immigrant defense organizations like Amigos de Guadalupe and the Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network (SIREN). The nonprofits oversee the Rapid Response Network, a coalition of community-run organizations that protect immigrants and their families from deportation raids in Santa Clara County.
Jessenia Garcia-Morales, an immigration legal associate with SIREN, said the aggression is unlike anything she saw during President Donald Trump’s first term. She points to massive ICE raids in Los Angeles, videos of agents violently grabbing people and smashing car windows.
She said it’s why two of her clients decided to self deport, because they wanted to have some autonomy over their future even though violence and persecution had driven them from their home countries.
“The scare tactics, the aggressiveness, just pure hate, was not to the level that it is now,” Garcia-Morales told San José Spotlight. “There were a little bit more checks and balances on (Trump’s) power the first time around.”
Garcia-Morales said earlier this year, one client in her 30s was granted voluntary departure from a judge to return back to Mexico. Another client in her late 50s chose to skip her immigration hearing and went back to Columbia. Once people decide to leave the U.S., it can make it harder for them to become citizens if they decide to return after Trump’s term.
“As a practitioner in this field, I always say, ‘Please just think about the future.’ I know that right now, this seems like a good idea, but it definitely can impact someone’s chances of being able to come back or have some type of legalization options in the future,” Garcia-Morales said.
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.
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