Self-Deportation Was NOT Invented By "Daniel D. Portado" In 1994, It Was Used By The American Government As Long Ago As 1914!
02/02/2012
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The New York Times blog, and, following, them the Atlantic are claiming that the term "self-deportation" was invented by a pair of Latino comic activists in 1994, and that when Pete Wilson and others started using it, they had been pranked by the fictional character “Daniel D. Portado,”[Message “D. Portado” Twitter] and failed to get the joke. (The character—the name sounds like deportado—was the creation by two Mexican-American “satirists,” Lalo Alcaraz and Esteban Zul, who hated Pete Wilson and Proposotion 187. )

See The Deep Comic Roots of ‘Self-Deportation’, By Robert Mackey, NYT, February 1, 2012

This is not true, as you can find instantly by searching Google Books for self-deportation. For example in

1989 legalization handbook:how to obtain lawful residence under the new immigration laws By Sarah Reinhardt, National Immigration Project,

Clark Boardman Co., 1989-10-01

We see that there are 3 pages matching "self-deportation" including one that says that an alien who

“otherwise departs while an order of deportation is outstanding, the alien is considered to have "self- deported"; self-deportation carries the same legal consequences as departure under an order of deportation executed by the INS”

self-deportation carries the same legal consequences as departure under an order of deportation executed by the INS”

 

IT's in the Code of Federal Regulations, 8 CFR §243.5(1990), and it goes back, in the 20th century, to 1914.

United States. Dept. of Labor - 1914 – (Annual Report Of The Commissioner Of Immigration—full text here)

(5) Prosecution of Pavlo Lesciak, for having imported one Kataryna Krawczuk for immoral purposes; held by United States commissioner, but United States attorney agreed to defendant's offer of self -deportation at own expense.

So the Latino  comedians did not invent the term, or the concept. All they did was impersonate Hispanic Republicans, but badly—actual Hispanic Republicans are frequently as disloyal as they are.

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