'Operation Irish Goodbye': ICE to detain migrants voluntarily leaving the US as part of Trump's deportation campaign

https://www.tpr.org/news/2025-12-16/operation-irish-goodbye-ice-to-detain-migrants-voluntarily-leaving-the-us-as-part-of-trumps-deportation-campaign



According to a memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Trump administration plans to deploy immigration agents to the U.S.–Mexico border to arrest undocumented migrants trying to return home voluntarily during the holidays.

ICE and CBP would conduct targeted operations at southern border ports, including commercial buses, to detain people “self-removing” and place them in formal deportation proceedings.

Detaining migrants who leave voluntarily may be aimed to impose long-term reentry penalties, since formal removal can bar people from returning for years or permanently.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the administration’s hardline immigration strategy at last Thursday’s House Homeland Security Committee hearing, saying rising voluntary departures show the approach is working.

However, the “Operation Irish Goodbye” may be serving a different purpose: inflating deportation statistics as the administration pushes to show progress toward Trump’s goal of record-high removals — even though its projected 600,000 deportations remain below Biden’s 685,000 in 2024.