Tipsheet

Minnesota Family Decides to Self-Deport, Proving Trump's Immigration Policies Are Working

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  February 03, 2026 3:00 PM

Despite the Left's rhetoric that ICE is the Gestapo or Nazis or fascists, the reality is this: ICE is tasked with enforcing the duly enacted immigration laws of our country. Those laws were written and codified by Congress and signed by past presidents of both parties. During the Obama years, no one said a word about ICE or accused agents of "terrorizing" our communities. CNN even did a ride-along with ICE and spoke positively of them.

How times have changed.

Democrats oppose ICE and Border Patrol because a) they oppose anything President Trump does, and b) have learned that importing millions of illegal immigrants helps them electorally. They've even said as much, with New York Democratic Rep. Yvette Clark saying illegal immigrant helps with redistricting.

The violent rhetoric spread mostly by Democrats, has led to massive riots in Minneapolis and elsewhere, and Democrats keep fanning the flames. The accusations that Border Patrol and ICE agents are as dangerous as they are untrue, but stoking fear is the point. Meanwhile, DHS is continuing to offer illegal immigrants a free plane ride and money if they self-deport. The snarky among us might point out the Nazis did no such thing.

That, coupled with the Democratic Party's fear-mongering, led one family to deport themselves.

Here's more:

Segundo’s family kept watching the street, afraid to leave the house.

All around their south Minneapolis neighborhood, the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge was raging. Immigrants were being pulled from their cars through smashed windows and marched out of their homes into the freezing cold.

Segundo, 43, his wife Maria, 40, and their five kids were on a path to legal status and say their immigration case was up-to-date. But the Ecuadorian family was increasingly afraid to go to work, school or to the store for food and diapers for their grandson.

“We didn’t come here with bad intentions,” Segundo said. “We came here to work. Now we are afraid to stay. We’re afraid to go outside."

On Jan. 23, Segundo, Maria and their youngest son, Jairo, who at 14 is too young to work, made the difficult decision to return to Ecuador. The move came after months of deliberation and the sudden deportation of immediate family members.

They are among the estimated tens of thousands of immigrants who have left the U.S. voluntarily in the past year rather than risk detainment and deportation.

This also keeps the family together, which the Democrats seem to care about.

Yes, it is.

Correct. Self-deporting means they can return through legal immigration channels in the future if they choose to.

It doesn't have to make sense. It just has to make people feel things.

Ecuador is nice this time of year, so we're told.

Despite what the Left says, every person who violates immigration law is a criminal. It doesn't matter if the crime is a misdemeanor; they broke the law. The consequence for that is deportation.