Southern California grandmother self-deports to Mexico, leaving family behind

KTLA ^ | June 12, 2025 | Vivian Chow

[TheDon]

Self deportation is starting work. She made the right decision. Great news!

[Governor Dinwiddie]

She can apply for a work permit.

[Az Joe]

This is the way

[mbrfl]

And in the mean time, she got a check for $1,000.

[Texas Eagle]

She couldn’t attain citizenship in 36 years? My ass.

[muglywump]

She passed on the $ 1,000.00.

“Earsaid her mother did not want to take advantage of the Trump administration’s Project Homecoming, a program that offered those who self-deported a $1,000 stipend and a free outbound flight.”

[toddausauras]

The problem with any argument against this is that it inevitably leads to open borders which is insanity. Gotta have laws.

[Texas Eagle]

So she filed false tax returns for 36 years? How many tens of thousands of dollars did she receive tax “refunds”?

[Texas Eagle]

Who did she give her fraudulent Socialist Security Number to?

[Mr. Blond]

Just go down to the Citizenship Store, and ask for One Citizenship, please.

[Az Joe]

Exactly. She was here for Reagan's 1986 amnesty. One of the Feb 1993 WTC attackers was vetted through that program. Mahmud Abouhalima, an Egyptian citizen convicted for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, obtained U.S. permanent residency through the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), signed by President Ronald Reagan. Abouhalima, who overstayed a tourist visa after arriving in the U.S. in 1986, falsely claimed to be an agricultural worker under the IRCA’s Special Agricultural Worker (SAW) program.

This program granted amnesty to nearly 1.3 million undocumented immigrants who could prove 90 days of agricultural work before May 1986. Due to limited resources at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), applications were rarely verified, allowing widespread fraud. Abouhalima’s green card, granted in 1990, enabled him to work freely and travel internationally, including to Pakistan for combat training, which facilitated his terrorist activities. The IRCA legalized about 2.7 million undocumented immigrants overall, primarily those who entered the U.S. before January 1, 1982, or who qualified as agricultural workers.

[Nateman]

She can now pursue legal entry. A wise move on her part.

[mass55th]

She probably couldn’t stand being with them anymore.

[Gene Eric]

51 YO...

[Gene Eric]

+1

[mass55th]

😉

[mass55th]

"She couldn’t attain citizenship in 36 years? My ass."

My ass too.

[KarlInOhio]

No mention at all of her legal status, which implies that she’s been here illegally for 36 years. But still the author tries to pull at our heartstrings with this sad story. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde’s quip on the death of Dickens’ Little Nell: “One must have a heart of stone to read the departure of Grandma without laughing.”

[FoxInSocks]

The rest of the story is that she created a bunch of American citizens while she was here, and they’ll turn around and sponsor her to come back next week.

[mass55th]

"She couldn’t attain citizenship in 36 years? My ass."

Forgot to mention it took my grandfather about 7 years to be naturalized after arriving at Ellis Island from Holland in 1913 with his wife and three boys, one of which was my father who was 8 at the time. My grandmother died before becoming a citizen. The three boys were naturalized when their father was.

My mother and her brother came here around 1923 from Canada with their mother. When my uncle enlisted into the Army in 1942, he hadn't yet become a citizen. The government had no entry date for him, so they drove him from Rochester, NY to Niagara Falls. Made him walk across the Peace Bridge and back, and used that as his entry date. On his way to the west coast to go overseas (China, Burma, India theater), his unit was barracked briefly at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. It was while he was there that he was naturalized in a Federal Court. I've got a copy of the court paper that I found via Ancestry.com.