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…
It's as if someone who came to your house for an afternoon visit refuses to leave and demands you accept the fact they have now decided to live in your house.
And that from then on you are required to provide food, clothing and whatever else they need or want.
When my great, great grandparents came here, they did it LEGALLY...AND they wanted to be AMERICAN CITIZENS! They went through Castle Garden ( Ellis Island later replaced that inspection place of entry ), had all of the necessary paperwork, money, and family here, who were their sponsors. And they IMMEDIATELY took English classes, had their children also take them, on top of going to regular school here, and abided by ALL American laws! So yes, I CAN and SHOULD speak out against these CRIMINAL INVADERS, as should ALL American citizens!
So they’re here illegally, starting businesses and buying homes. Whose SS#’s are they using?
My ancestors were PROUDLY American, did NOT have Hungarian flags in the house, nor had any further allegiance to the Austro-Hungarian Empire!
Sure, they still cooked Hungarian dishes ( which their descendants did/do too ), but very quickly learned about making American cuisine, celebrated The Fourth of July, etc., served in the American armed services,and were as American as people whose ancestors came here on the Mayflower!
They did NOT come here to be leeches ( okay, there were NO "safety nets" at all back then, but there was the Dole, which none ever was on ); they came here for FREEDOM, found it, and like other early Hungarian emigres,LOVED this nation and the FREEDOM it had!
The current crop if damned CRIMINAL ILLEGAL HORDES come here for the spoils!
Thanks for the links; screw McCain and Kennedy and Trump is WRONG with promoting this!
Sounds like a Portuguese business family flying their Portuguese flags in America while making money off of Americans.
We’ll see what happens. Even if what you’re saying ends up being the case, Trump still will have done more to close the border and deport illegals than any president since Eisenhower. Would I like to see everyone who’s here illegally sent back? Yes. But as a politically reality, doing so is going to be very difficult.
My highest priority and I believe Trump’s highest priority is to deport all criminal illegals (i.e. illegals who have committed additional crimes once here) followed by deportation of all the Biden illegals.
Beyond that, incentivizing self-deportation of the rest is probably the best approach, both politically and economically. The fact is, if Trump’s economic policies generate the growth that he’s promising, there will be an economic need for some degree of LEGAL immigration, even if it’s mostly H-2A and H-2B seasonal visas, as American citizens fill the higher paying permanent jobs generated by increased manufacturing. Allowing a portion of “non-criminal” illegals to come back legally after self deporting would make sense as a practical matter.
That’s the RINO, Gang of Eight, Bushian position that we staved off, but they are apparently getting through via Trump.
That expansion and continued presence of low-cost immigrant labor is exactly what has decimated our middle, working and lower classes over the past 50 years.
But you’re bought in on the old McCain position when it is reinforced by Trump.
90 day tourist visa and overstayed. My heart is bleeding. 🙄
I have no empathy — though, I wish them well somewhere else
This really pisses me off. First of all, I was born here, worked my ass off since I was 16. I've been divorced since 1979, raised two sons by myself, put myself through college going to night school, could never afford a home when my kids were little, and by the time I could afford one, they were ready to leave the nest, and I didn't need a house.
My father came here from Holland as an 8 year old with his two brothers and their parents in 1913 aboard the USS Rijndam, a Holland-America passenger trip. They traveled from Rotterdam to New York Harbor, and were processed through Ellis Island. My grandmother died of TB in 1919. In 1920, my grandfather and the three boys became U.S. citizens. One of my uncles enlisted in the U.S. Army and served overseas in WWII. My own brother enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam 1966-67.
Sob, sniff, sniff. Such a sad story. Came here on a 90 day tourist visa and they simply forgot to go home. Now they live in fear.
Why are Europeans in this mess?
My parents were legal immigrants and I don't remember ever seeing the flag of their homeland ever being displayed.
>>”But you’re bought in on the old McCain position when it is reinforced by Trump.”
Nonsense. Trump has certain goals, but he’s practical about how to achieve them. That’s why he’s so effective. Trump wants to improve the economic conditions of the American worker, and his policies are designed to do just that.
>>”That expansion and continued presence of low-cost immigrant labor is exactly what has decimated our middle, working and lower classes over the past 50 years.”
More nonsense. Trade policies that allowed good paying manufacturing jobs to be shipped overseas was the primary culprit for declining earnings among the American working class. Bringing manufacturing back to this country is the way Trump’s going to reverse that.
That’s not to say that excessive immigration didn’t play a role, but it wasn’t the primary culprit, and with the pro-growth policies being implemented by Trump, a certain level of targeted immigration will benefit national economic growth and facilitate the transition of the American working class from lower wage jobs to higher paying ones.
‘My heart is shattered’
Hmmmm... Think how WE felt when you showed up!
I still laugh when I think of AOC trying to school Tom Holman about how ‘asylees’ are not criminals......
More than a few illegal aliens have built companies with the necessary resources to purchase the proposed Trump $5M citizenship option. The trick is how to get rid of the bad people and help retain the good people.
The Trump Administration is posturing to use the possibility of a legal return to help encourage illegals to self deport because for most it's going to be a one way trip back home, but there are still a lot of good people it would be nice to have back in the states legally.
If Trump could figure out a program to get rid of some of our homegrown domestic losers with citizenship, we would be golden.
The biggest problem we face with immigration is that the Democrats are working hard to make immigrants, both legal and illegal, as big of a class of losers burdening our system as they have with our native welfare system losers.
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