DHS ‘remigrate’ post sparks debate over its definition and ties to extremism

A Gallup poll found 80% of Americans say the nation is greatly divided

We're so far apart not just on the issues, but even words carry different meanings between the two major political parties

The Department of Homeland Security posted a single word on X, re-migrate. In a follow-up post, the agency linked to a government page promoting voluntary

self-deportation. That one word, re-migrate, triggered a wave of headlines questioning what

DHS meant and why they used it. So what exactly does re-migrate mean? And why is it drawing such

strong reactions from politicians and the press? The controversy over the word re-migrate has

mostly played out on one side of the media landscape. The headlines you just saw, all from

Some left-leaning outlets framed the term as problematic due to historic ties to extremist groups

But right outlets are not covering this latest controversy either seeing it as not newsworthy or a non And these two sentiments in the media mirror those in the political landscape Here how some people reacted to the Remigrate post Several users posted a Wikipedia definition of the word associating the term with a European far proposal of ethnic cleansing

Other online critics called the post a white supremacist euphemism and neo-Nazi ethnic cleansing propaganda

What I can see about re-migration is that if you look carefully enough, you can find people using it who are on the extreme end of the spectrum

The term has been more prevalent in European politics and history. In CNN's write-up, they cite an example of its prior use by Hitler and how neo-Nazis have put re-migration slogans on T-shirts

A policy director for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue says the term re-migrate is closely linked to the Great Replacement Theory

which suggests there's a conspiracy to replace white European populations with non-European migrants

And extremist or white supremacist groups see re as a solution and a way to ethnically cleanse You know I want to get people to benefit the doubt kind of figure out who said it and why And if necessary ask them what did you mean by that term And then I judge

DHS was asked by news outlets about the re-migrate post on X

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a media statement, Is the English language too difficult for you

With a Collins English Dictionary definition of the word, which reads, to migrate again, migrate back or return. Her statement continued, we urge all illegal aliens

to re-migrate and self-deport using the CBP home app. When I hear, for example, the State Department's

Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration use the word re-migration, then I think that what

they're talking about is figuring out ways to more quickly get people who are illegally in the United

States and should be removed back to either their home country or wherever else we can send them

Some condemned the administration for using the term re-migrate, such as this professor

interviewed by Time, who said in Europe, it's an established part of the linguistic toolbox of

white supremacy But Hankinson says the word should not be banned just because of bad actors We got 350 million people and some of them are morons We can guarantee that in a hot debate like immigration you know there going to be feuding over this word and people are going to attribute

meaning to it that may not have been intended by the person using the word. According to State

Department sources, the use of re-migration could become a new norm as the Trump administration is

planning to establish an Office of Remigration, a new hub to facilitate the voluntary return of

migrants to their country of origin or legal residents. Thank you so much for watching our

news story. If you liked how we covered this topic, you might also like a podcast that I host

here at SAN called Bias Breakdown. It's where we take some of the biggest news stories of the week

and dig into how different news outlets cover them and identify media bias. We recently did

an episode on the term gender-affirming care, exploring how it's become politically charged

often used by left-leaning media while right-leaning outlets choose alternate phrases. We break down the language and the debate surrounding it. Check it out on Spotify

YouTube, or anywhere that you listen to podcasts. And I'll see you there