Posted on 04/10/2025 8:47:58 PM PDT by 11th_VA
Helena DaSilva Hughes, president of the Immigrants’ Assistance Center, said she’s been talking with Portuguese officials in the Azores to understand what families will need in order to “self-deport.” Credit: Jodi Hilton/The Public’s Radio Lucia flips through immigration papers she keeps in a large pink folder at her home in New Bedford. She’s originally from the Azorean islands, an autonomous region of Portugal, and has lived in the U.S. with her husband and two children for about 12 years.
The walls of her home are lined with family photos and potted plants with little Portuguese flags stand by the entrance. At the center of her living room, a large ceramic statue of the saint Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres watches over Lucia, cloaked in green robes.
For years, her life in the U.S. has been comfortable. She and her husband own their own businesses, and their kids are in the local school system.
“We fell in love with this country,” Lucia said. “I never felt scared here. I never felt that I was a target to no one.”
But Lucia said she no longer feels secure in the U.S. She sees the news about ICE raids across the country and here in New Bedford. It hits home because Lucia doesn’t have legal status to live in the U.S., and fears being targeted by immigration officials. That’s why The Public’s Radio is not using her full name.
“If they deport me, you know, I’m going to lose everything that I worked hard to build here; they won’t let me take anything with me,” Lucia said.
Lucia came to the U.S. for economic opportunities and a better education for her children. The family arrived on 90-day tourist visas. Now that she’s overstayed her visa for years, there isn’t a clear way for her to apply for citizenship. And her children don’t benefit from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, because they came to the U.S. after 2012.
Lucia said she is scared of ending up detained in a cell and separated from her family. So her family is looking into leaving the country proactively before the Trump administration forces them to. But, Lucia says, it’s a hard decision to sell their home, their businesses, and leave their lives in the U.S. behind to return somewhere that, she feels, doesn’t have much for them.
“There’s nothing left for us there [in Portugal], even for my kids. No,” Lucia said. “It’s a big step. We have so many things. We have a life of 12 years. You cannot put 12 years in a bag and pack and go.”
Immigrant advocates in the region say that Ecuadoran and Brazilian immigrants are also considering self-deportation. But Helena DaSilva Hughes, president of the Immigrants’ Assistance Center in New Bedford, said most of the calls she’s getting are from Azorean immigrants.
DaSilva Hughes said there are at least 1,000 Portuguese families in Bristol County where at least some of the family members have overstayed on tourist visas. She said this includes people who have since started families, established businesses or are homeowners now.
“The ones who are basically trying to sell their house or they have small businesses. They’re trying to cash out so they can go back to Portugal,” DaSilva Hughes said…
When my wife was younger, her Portuguese neighbors in Da Bronx would steal her father’s SS checks and cash them. They ended up getting deported (overstayed visas) when they picked the wrong neighbor to also do it to: the father of the NYPD detective across the street.
How does anyone in their right mind think that they can come on a tourist visa and just stay and not eventually get in trouble?
There are legal ways to come here and stay here. Yes, it takes a LOT of paper work, money,and time; however, many others who want to BE Americans, NOT just damned leeches, do it the right way!
These people have NO loyalty to this nation and our laws.
Exactly.
They’re not immigrants if they’re not here the legal way.
But, but, I keep reading stories of Americans moving to Portugal because it’s such a great place to live.
:-)
Stop sobbing...your fami.y are ALL illegal alien invaders. That’s the bottom line. Get out...O. U. T!
This is exactly how President Eisenhower’s deportation plan Operation Wetback worked. It finally had a psychological affect of fear of being caught causing wetbacks to self deport.
It’s working!!!
Immigrants come here LEGALLY!
These people are CRIMINALS, who need to get out now, or be hunted down, prosecuted, and deported with NO hope nor chance of EVER setting foot on American soil ever again, in any way, shape, manner, or form!
Hey, Trump just said if they work in the hotel industry or agriculture, they can turn around and come back magically legally!
They’re here illegally.
There are CRIMINALS!
And we should show sympathy because they’re here illegally? Ah, NO freakin’ way. Who writes this junk?
When did he say that those who over stay their visas can come back?
Aliens, invaders, anything but immigrants !!!
“These people have NO loyalty to this nation and our laws.”
Exactly, from the article:
“ and potted plants with little Portuguese flags stand by the entrance. “
No US flags?
Here ya go:
It’s essentially the old “comprehensive immigration reform” disguised by flashy deportations of gang members
Remember this? https://immigrationimpact.com/2018/08/28/john-mccain-legacy-immigration/
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