For months, the White House and federal agencies have drawn outrage from critics for social media posts promoting President Trump’s immigration agenda . Some of the posts deploy jokes or memes. Others use language or images seen as racist dog whistles. This week, the Department of Homeland Security drew pushback for a post that was just one word: remigrate .
The term, which has been embraced among Trump’s MAGA base, has a fraught history in Europe, where it has ties to white nationalism and has been seen as a euphemism for ethnic cleansing.
The short post on X was followed by a link to a government site promoting self-deportation.
Where “remigration” came from
The term “remigration” has traditionally been used in Europe to refer to the mass deportation of non-white immigrants.