Immigration attorneys say the Trump administration has begun hanging up fliers in English and Spanish warning immigrants to self deport.
“The point is very clear, which is to have people leave without any process or without knowing all their rights,” said Amelia Dagen, a staff attorney with the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. “The current administration is removing information about people’s rights, their obligations, their ability to go through full legal proceedings before potentially being deported [and] their access to assistance.”
The Amica Center is one of several legal service providers around the U.S. offering legal aid to adults and children going through the immigration system.
The new material — shared by the Amica Center — says immigrants who self deport can keep money earned in the U.S., may be eligible for help flying home, and could apply for legal immigration in the future.
Dagen says she first heard about the posters appearing in immigration courtrooms in Pennsylvania. That was in April.
Also in April, the Trump administration moved to shutter two federally-funded programs that allow pro-bono attorneys to give legal presentations to adults and children in immigration detention.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association has since reported seeing them in courtrooms nationwide and also in immigration detention centers, including in Arizona. Dagen says the material has also been given directly to migrants after their court proceedings — she says one asylum seeker received the paper after being granted asylum.
“This is actually not a right, to ‘self -deport,’ there are other materials, like what is asylum? How do you know if you’re eligible for that and how to apply. What is bond?” Dagen said.
Dagen says those materials used to be available to immigrants. Now, they’re not guaranteed.
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