The term "self-deportation" originally made its way to the U.S. political lexicon back in 2012 when Mitt Romney, then presidential candidate, advocated for it during a Florida presidential debate. Romney, answering a question about how he planned to get undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. to leave the country, said:
"The answer is self-deportation, which is people decide they could do better by going home because they can't find work here because they don't have legal documentation to allow them to work here"
