Families Will ‘Self-Deport’ to Mexico Ahead of Trump's Inauguration

Families will voluntarily leave the U.S. back to their countries fearing Trump’s ‘Mass Deportation’ threats.

*Carmen Márquez

PHOENIX, Arizona.— When the Quiroz family arrived in the United States, originally from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, they thought the American Dream would last forever. But for several families like them, this year could mark the end of that dream. 

As Donald Trump sets to sit in office this upcoming January, several families in Arizona are packing their belongings amassed through the years: clothes, electronics…and thousands of memories. The fear is that Trump could keep his word and begin a “mass deportation” of undocumented migrants living in the US. 

On November 18 elected president Donald Trump briefly confirmed that his administration would declare a national emergency and use the US military to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

In a social media post, Trump responded “TRUE!!!” to a post by Tom Fitton, the president of the conservative group Judicial Watch, who wrote days earlier that the next administration “will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program”.

Although this could only be a bully rhetoric, many fear he will actually send thousands back to their countries of origin. 

Manuel Quiroz, an 18-year-old born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, awoke with mixed emotions the day after the November 5th election. The approval of Proposition 314 -also known as the ‘Secure The Border Act’- in Arizona felt like a familiar chapter in his life as a member of a mixed-status family. 

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