Self-deportation is the name given to an approach to dealing with illegal immigrants in which life is made so miserable and untenable for the immigrants that they voluntarily return to their native countries, or "self-deport." Self-deportation as a strategic concept has been around since the late 1990s in American right-wing circles, but it first gained prominence during the 2012 US Presidential Election when Republican candidate Mitt Romney publicly endorsed the policy by name on the campaign trail, and the Republican Party included self-deportation in the immigration policy plank of their party platform.
Self-deportation has been criticized from the left as an unrealistic or unworkable strategy for dealing with more than 12 million undocumented immigrants, many of whom have resided in the United States for decades and are well integrated into their communities, and many of whom remain poor and would have difficulty funding a return trip to their home nation. The extreme steps required to make significant numbers of these immigrants miserable enough and desperate enough to return home would most likely produce undesired secondary consequences for legal immigrants and native-born Americans as well.