We remember then governor, now senator, Mitt Romney bringing up Russia during the 2012 election.  Those were the days when President Obama mocked Mr. Romney for saying about the 1980s wanting their foreign policy back, or something like that.

Today, we remember something else that Romney said in that campaign: self-deportation.  His point is that people would go home if they didn't find work in the U.S.

It turns out that Romney was right again.

See this report by Christie Thompson, a Politico staff writer, and Andrew R. Calderon, data reporter for the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that focuses on the U.S. criminal justice system:

The number of immigrants who have applied for voluntary departure has soared since the election of Donald Trump, according to new Justice Department data obtained by the Marshall Project. In fiscal year 2018, the number of applications doubled from the previous fiscal year — rising much faster than the 17 percent increase in overall immigration cases, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

The numbers show yet another way the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration is having an effect: More people are considering leaving the U.S., rather than being stuck in detention or taking on a lengthy legal battle with little hope of success.

Last year, voluntary departure applications reached a seven-year high of 29,818. In the Atlanta court, which hears cases of Irwin detainees like Zamarrón, the applications multiplied nearly seven times from 2016 to 2018.

It makes total sense, and I've seen examples of it.  In other words, if you open the door and don't enforce the laws, then people will come over.  If you check people at the door, then the word will get out that it's not easy to go to the U.S.  If you really go after employers, and destroy the work incentives, then they won't come at all.

The word is out that President Trump plans to enforce immigration laws.  It's only natural that people here will go home and tell their friends that it's too "complicado" to go north.

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