self-deportation
{{Short description|US and UK approach for illegal immigration}}
Self-deportation is an approach to dealing with illegal immigration, used in the United States and the United Kingdom, that allows an otherwise inadmissible person to voluntarily depart a country for which they have no legal ties to rather than face removal proceedings in front of the native court system. It became associated with illegal immigration to the United States in the 1990s.
History
This term was used as early as 1984 in a People article about the film director Roman Polanski, which referred to his self-deporting.{{cite news |title=Roman Polanski |first=D. Keith |last=Mano |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20087293,00.html |newspaper=People |date=5 March 1984 |accessdate=25 June 2012}} The term gained its current association with illegal immigration in the 1990s, especially in California. In 1994, William Safire described its usage by California governor Pete Wilson's immigration strategy, exemplified by Proposition 187, which prevented illegal aliens from using a variety of state social services. Safire summarized the philosophy of the approach as holding that "the most cost-effective way to change behavior is to make life unbearable under present behavior."{{cite news |title=Essay; Self-Deportation? |first=William |last=Safire |authorlink=William Safire |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/21/opinion/essay-self-deportation.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=21 November 1994 |accessdate=25 June 2012}}{{cite news |title=The Deep Comic Roots of 'Self-Deportation' |first=Robert |last=Mackey |url=http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/the-deep-comic-roots-of-self-deportation/ |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1 February 2012 |accessdate=25 June 2012}} The same year, Lalo Alcaraz and Esteban Zul launched a satirical campaign involving a character named "Daniel D. Portado" (a pun on deportado, Spanish for deported), who facetiously promoted self-deportation.{{cite news |title=News Flash: The Real Inventor of "Self-Deportation" |url=http://www.thisamericanlife.org/blog/2012/01/news-flash-the-real-inventor-of-self-deportation |newspaper=This American Life |date=31 January 2012 |accessdate=25 June 2012}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Category:Political terminology of the United States
Category:Illegal immigration to the United States
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