President Donald Trump's new scheme to pay $1,000 to unauthorized immigrants who "self-deport" is a "dark insult" that runs contrary to the whole concept of America, Theodore R. Johnson wrote in an analysis for The Washington Post Friday.
Already, some observers are warning immigrants not to take the offer because it simply can't be trusted, with one legal expert saying the administration's promise that such people will be eligible for residency in the United States at some later point is a trap.
Paying immigrants to leave is actually a fairly common policy around the world, Johnson noted: "France has offered payments upward of $8,000, travel aid and in-kind reintegration assistance. Germany provides transportation, lump-sum payments and medical assistance. Japan, Sweden and the United Kingdom have similar programs."
But "for a place that has proudly proclaimed to be a 'nation of immigrants' and home to the American Dream, the country’s pay-to-go-away policy is particularly hypocritical."
In fact, he said, it's representative of Trump's entire mindset, where America is not to be run like a country but a "cutthroat business" that should pursue the goals of the leader with singleminded abandon.
"Through this lens, offering paltry buyouts to people hoping to become Americans — and measuring success in dollars saved — is framed as compassionate and efficient policy," Johnson wrote. However, at the end of the day, it's more like "bad severance packages for dreamers, or predatory contracts branded as smart governance and sound business acumen. It also capitalizes on the fear and uncertainty that results from the deportations of citizens and legal residents. It makes people an offer they can’t refuse, but with concierge service: Go back to Africa! Can we help you with your bags?"
It's much more insulting than previous schemes, Johnson wrote, like a 2012 GOP's "self-deportation" proposal where immigrants would get a pathway to citizenship but be totally shut out of work if they failed to follow the proper steps. Here, he said, immigrants are being asked to "sell away their chance at a better life."
Trump's self-deportation buyout, Johnson concluded, "misunderstands why people of all kinds choose to stay here, even when given the chance — or a federally sponsored incentive — to leave the country and start anew elsewhere. No matter where we once were, being American means we come from here now; this is home. And there’s no going back — not even for a one-way ticket and a thousand bucks."
