Warning and message from deportees

The federal Department of Homeland Security has agreed, as a result of a settlement announced in San Diego courts this week, to inform undocumented immigrants of the consequences of voluntarily submitting to deportation. The news could result in thousands of previously deported individuals returning to California to protest their removal from the country.

Last June, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit claiming that customs and Border Patrol officials used threats and intimidation to coerce individuals to accept "voluntary departure," a situation that does not carry the same legal ramifications as an official deportation.

Under voluntary-departure terms, an individual caught returning to the United States within ten years could face felony charges. The case's lead plaintiff says she was forced to return to Mexico with her 11-year-old son, who suffers from Asperger syndrome, as a result of misleading claims by immigration officials.

"We are heartened that this lawsuit should lead to the cessation of these forced 'voluntary departures,' the improvement of our critical border patrol policies and practices, and if approved by the court, a procedure for the reunification of aggrieved individuals with their families," offered plaintiffs' attorney Darice Tilly in a statement accompanying the judgment.

Although the initial case involved only nine individuals and the government's official non-admission of wrongdoing in the matter as a stipulation of the settlement, it has been speculated that a large number of "voluntary" deportees could challenge their status in the wake of the decision.

"We’re hoping that this is really a warning and a message for immigration enforcement agencies, that even for folks that they try to deport or remove from the country as soon as possible, they still have rights,” ACLU counsel Lucero Chavez told BuzzFeed News.