Professor of Sociology and co-director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies David FitzGerald was featured in a San Diego Union-Tribune article titled “‘You’re just there, trapped’: Why one Mexican woman decided to ‘self-deport,’ long before Trump.” In the article, David writes:
These policies are designed to increase anxiety, they’re designed to create fear in immigrant communities. The government knows they’ll never be able to go out and deport the unauthorized population – and one of their stated hopes is that people will self-deport.