Portuguese families 'living under fear' are leaving US, returning to Azores. Here's why.

Yahoo

12-05-2025

NEW BEDFORD — Between 15 and 20 families of Azorean Portuguese descent have gotten their paperwork together, purchased a plane ticket, and flown back to the Azores, according to Helena da Silva Hughes, president of the nonprofit Immigrants' Assistance Center at 58 Crapo St. in New Bedford.
Hughes said about 1,000 undocumented families living in Greater Fall River who visited the United States and overstayed their tourist visas — while putting down roots deep enough to run businesses, purchase homes and start families — are now planning to return to Western Portugal and the Azores Islands, where they still have family and community connections.
'Families sold everything to come here,' Hughes said. Now, she said, they're selling homes and businesses 'to go back.'
Cleaning businesses, restaurants and construction are just some of the businesses Hughes said are common in SouthCoast communities where visa-holders of Portuguese descent are willing to work under the table in return for economic opportunity and the chance to provide their children with 'a better life.'
'Living under this fear,' said Hughes — fear that keeps them from leaving their homes for work or sending their children to school — 'is no way to live.'
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As of May 5, the Department of Homeland Security under President Donald J. Trump issued a proposal offering $1,000 stipends and free airfare to immigrants who deport themselves as part of the current administration's crackdown on illegal immigration since January.
The latest proposal enhances the department's previous encouragement to undocumented immigrants to leave, using the Customs and Border Protection's CBP Home App.
The department has estimated paying for voluntary deportations would be less expensive than the current average of $17,121 to arrest, detain and remove an undocumented immigrant.
'If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,' DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.
Hughes said Portuguese, Cape Verde and Brazilian families, especially those with children, heard this message and are in the process of leaving the United States on their own accord as soon as the school year ends. But, she said, they are less comfortable adding their information to the CBP registry.
The app is linked to a user's name, uses facial recognition, and can track a user's location through the phone's GPS. People who are self-deporging report that they are asked to take a photo of themselves, provide personally identifying information, disclose whether they have a passport from another country, and say whether they "have enough money to depart the United States."
Trump told reporters at the White House on May 5 that courts have made it difficult to deport immigrants, but that he hopes the Supreme Court will eventually side with his administration. Trump said migrants who deport themselves could receive some money, get 'a beautiful flight back to where they came from,' and have the chance to return to the United States if they work hard.
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Hughes, who was invited to participate in summit talks in São Miguel with the Azorean government and other regional agencies to learn how they can support the undocumented, said 'the biggest challenge the island now has is educating American children.'
Hughes cited the difficulty in tracking returning families who have simply updated their passports and bought an international flight. She said she has advised Azorean government officials to check school enrollments for an uptick in U.S.-born students.
Amid what Hughes is calling 'anti-immigrant sentiment,' on account of an 'unjust narrative' that targets 'criminals,' she maintained that not all ethnic groups have equal opportunities to depart voluntarily from the U.S.
Central and South Americans have illegally crossed the border to flee gangs, political upheaval and economic downturn, Hughes said. These families often hire and later compensate coyotes thousands of dollars to help their families cross the border. Migrant workers must repay them or they risk their family's safety at home.
'Immigration is very complicated,' Hughes said.
Trump has said people with final deportation orders should be a priority for removal although many have families, jobs and established ties in the United States.
"If they miss that limit, they're going to be taken out of our country," Trump said recently. "And they will never get a path to come back in. And it will be a much tougher process."
Hughes said immigration in the 1970s and '80s followed roughly a two-and-a-half-year process initiated by a citizen who could petition for family members to join them in the United States.
Now, the legal process stretches to 12 years, she said, citing the need for immigration reform.
Homeland Security has said migrants who agree to leave voluntarily will be less of a priority for detention and removal, adding that participation in the program may preserve the option for them to re-enter the United States legally in the future.
But fears about the promises made by the Trump administration persist, Hughes said, leading most families to avoid the registry and leave quietly instead. She added that the $1,000 stipend is "not a lot" — nowhere near enough for someone to rebuild a life overseas.
'What's happening now,' Hughes said, 'no one has ever seen.'
With USA Today reports.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Greater Fall River families return to the Azores to avoid deportation