Some Immigrants Are Already Leaving the US in ‘Self-Deportations’ As Trump’s Threats Loom

Michel Bérrios left the United States a few days before the new year, giving President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign for mass deportations a small victory before they even started.

A former leader of a Nicaraguan student uprising, Bérrios had been in the US legally, with nearly a year remaining under President Joe Biden’s unprecedented use of humanitarian parole authority for citizens of certain vulnerable countries. But harsh talk during the US election campaign filled her with anxious memories of hiding from authorities back home.

In Nicaragua, “I spent five years hiding. I had to change my routine. I had to completely change my life. I stopped visiting my parents, my friends,” Bérrios said of President Daniel Ortega’s crackdown on dissent. With Trump returning to power, “that uncertainty has returned.”

Such fear is natural for anyone without permanent legal status, said Melanie Nezer, vice president for advocacy and external relations at the Women’s Refugee Commission. People with temporary permission to live and work, like Bérrios, may see that status end soon.