When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted the single word "remigrate" on its X account last week, all leftist hell broke loose on X, in the media, and in the general political ecosystem. It was accompanied by a link to the CBP mobile app used for self-deporting.
The immediate response online was exactly what you would expect, and went exactly where you would expect—hyperbolic Hitler. CNN trotted out its hot-keyed never-Trumper "experts" to declaim that this, this, is truly shades of Nazism. And they are definitely trusted. Time magazine, which is apparently still a thing, went with "white nationalism" as its origin story for the term.
There is zero distance between the Trump administration following American law and administering a new policy, and the left vaulting to "Nazi!" It's hard to imagine anyone outside the fever swamps hearing anything other than background noise.
While the lefties want Americans to think this is yet another authoritarian, Hitlerian action by President Trump, the reality is that remigration is a legal, Constitutional form of returning people who should not have been naturalized Americans, to their home country.
Referring to the untold millions of illegal immigrants Joe Biden opened the borders to, President Trump posted on Truth Social in June:
"All of them have to go home, as do countless other Illegals and Criminals, who will turn us into a bankrupt Third World Nation. America was invaded and occupied. I am reversing the Invasion. It's called Remigration. Our courageous ICE Officers, who are daily being subjected to doxxing and murder threats, are HEROES. We will always have their back as they carry out this noble mission. America will be for Americans again!"
Early this year, the U.S. Department of State proposed creating an "Office of Remigration" as part of its major overhaul of Foggy Bottom. The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration would be repurposed from resettlement work to tracking and returning immigrants to their home countries, which can include changing their legal status.
This reorganization has not been completed yet, but in fairness, Trump keeps Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team busy creating world peace.
Remigration is essentially a natural extension of Trump's immigration and deportation policies. It may be an unusual one, but it is completely in response to the only time in American history when a presidential administration refused to enforce federal border and immigration law. Unusual lengths would not have been required if not for the extraordinary abdication of sworn responsibility from 2021-2024.
Under 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a), American citizenship gained through illegal actions or willful misrepresentation gives cause for revoking citizenship and repatriating the person to their home country. This is also referred to as denaturalization.
The code outlines illegal actions and basic statutory requirements. If people misrepresent themselves or their backgrounds during the naturalization process, they can be denaturalized. This is sound common sense, but it can only be done through a judicial order in civil proceedings or a criminal conviction for naturalization fraud.
This is only controversial — other than the fact that Donald Trump is doing it — because it has rarely been used in our history. But we've never been in this place before, overrun with people who came here illegally, do not want to assimilate, know nothing of our history that made America so great, and maintain their loyalties to whatever Third World dumpster fire they ran from. And that means they import their dumpster fire here.
This sort of immigration policy has been a complete disaster for Europe, which gives every indication that it will never recover. The Trump administration and most Americans do not want that future for America and are determined that we will not become a Marxist or Islamist rubble pile. Remigration is another tool in the toolbox to ensure that.
Rod Thomson is a former daily newspaper reporter and columnist, Salem radio host and ABC TV commentator, and current Founder of The Thomson Group, a Florida-based political consulting firm. He has eight children,seven grandchildren, and a rapacious hunger to fight for America for them. Follow him on Twitter at @Rod_Thomson. Email him at [email protected].
