USA Today: State Department could have an ‘Office of Remigration’: What is it?

The Trump administration last week formally notified Congress of its plans for a sweeping reorganization of the State Department, which could include the establishment of an office focused on returning migrants living in the U.S. to their countries of origin.

It is one of several overhauls spearheaded by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as he marches forward with a broad reorganization of the State Department, first announced in April. It would also include a cut to thousands of jobs, refocus the agency’s human rights bureau on “Western values” ….

Rubio didn’t mention the Office of Remigration in his statement, and the office is not listed on a new chart on the department’s website. However, reporting from CNN and Axios say there is a proposal within a more detailed notification for an “Office of Remigration,” with both outlets independently reporting that it is described as a “hub for immigration issues and repatriation tracking.”

The proposed office would be one of three new “functional offices” formed from the existing Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, the outlets reported, all consolidated under a (Deputy Assistant Secretary of State) for Migration Matters. The three new offices are to “actively facilitate the voluntary return of migrants to their country of origin or legal status,” according to the reporting.

What is the term ‘remigration’?

The proposed name draws on a term increasingly associated in Europe with the far-right and the rise in ethnonationalist immigration attitudes, especially in Germany and Austria, that calls for mass deportation of primarily non-white immigrants. It has become a shorthand to refer to policy proposals triumphed by some European right-wing parties, extremists and neo-Nazi activists that call for forceful mass deportation of migrants.

It attracted buzz in 2023 after a jury of German linguists named in “non-word” of the year in its annual ranking of misleading or inappropriate words that are used to discriminate or gloss over issues. While it has become a euphemism for forced repatriation in several Western and Central European countries, it is a largely unfamiliar term in the American political lexicon.

In the final weeks of his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump used the term remigration in a post to the social media site X.

“As President I will immediately end the migrant invasion of America. We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal entries, terminate the Kamala phone app for smuggling illegals (CBP One App), revoke deportation immunity, suspend refugee resettlement, and return Kamala’s illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration),” he said in the post.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/02/office-of-remigration/83989772007

Reuters: State Dept overhaul will cut thousands of jobs, push ‘Western values’

  • More than 300 bureaus and offices to be reorganized or eliminated
  • Agency’s domestic workforce to be reduced by 3,448
  • Offices will pivot to promoting Western values and free markets

The Trump administration on Thursday formally notified Congress of its plans for a major overhaul of the State Department, which will cut thousands of jobs, refocus the agency’s human rights bureau on “Western values” and reorient the refugee bureau toward returning migrants to their countries of origin.

Eh? People become refugees because life in their countries of origin has become dangerous or unbearable. Returning them to their countries of origin only continues their misery. It’s also a violation of international treaties regarding refugees.

The shake-up comes as part of an unprecedented push by President Donald Trump to shrink the federal bureaucracy and align what remains with his “America First” priorities.

The role of a top official for civilian security, democracy, and human rights will be eliminated, along with the offices that monitored war crimes and conflicts around the world.

A new Senate-confirmed role of under secretary for foreign assistance and humanitarian affairs will oversee the new Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, which is to be reorganized to “ground the Department’s values-based diplomacy in traditional Western conceptions of core freedoms” and headed by a deputy assistant secretary for “Democracy and Western Values.”

Within the new bureau, an Office of Free Markets and Free Labor will promote free-market principles and an Office of Natural Rights will work on what the Trump administration sees as “free speech backsliding in Europe and other developed nations.”

Rubio on Wednesday said foreign officials who the Trump administration deems to be involved in censorship will be banned from visiting the U.S.

The Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration will also be “substantially reorganized to shift focus towards supporting the Administration’s efforts to return illegal aliens to their country of origin or legal status,” the summary said.

As Reuters reported earlier this month, the refugee bureau will also take responsibility for the U.S. response to major disasters overseas.

In other words, whites only and refugees need not apply. 🙁

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/state-dept-broad-reorganization-plan-submitted-congress-2025-05-29

Wired: The Trump Administration Wants to Create an ‘Office of Remigration’

“Remigration”—a far-right European plan to expel minorities and immigrants from Western nations—may soon have a dedicated office following a Trump administration reorganization of the State Department.

As part of a sweeping reorganization of the State Department, the Trump administration is creating an Office of Remigration. Remigration is an immigration policy embraced by extremists that calls for the removal of all migrants—including “non-assimilated” citizens—with the goal of creating white ethnostates in Western countries.

The details of the plan are contained in a 136-page notification document sent by the State Department to six Congressional commitees—including the House Foreign Affairs and Appropriations Committees and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—for approval by July 1, according to a copy reviewed by WIRED.

“The Office of Remigration will serve as the [Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration]’s hub for immigration issues and repatriation tracking,” the document reads. “It will provide a policy platform for interagency coordination with DHS and other agencies on removals/repatriations, and “for intra-agency policy work to advance the President’s immigration agenda.”

The notification says that the Office of Remigration “will also actively facilitate the voluntary return of migrants to their country of origin or legal status,” which is a key aim of remigration ideology.

There are three phases to “remigration”:

On [Martin Sellner’s] site, he lays out a three-phase plan to implement remigration. The first phase, dubbed the “Immediate Stabilization of Asylum Chaos,” has striking similarities to Trump’s current immigration policies.

The second phase of Sellner’s plan, following the initial removal of undocumented immigrants, includes the removal of “migrants who entered the country legally and have a residence/work permit, or temporary visa, but are an economical, criminal or cultural burden.”

The final phase targets citizens who are seen as “non assimilated,”and it involves passing laws to “target parallel societies with economic and cultural pressure” and entice citizens to migrate abroad with the use of loans, payments, and other assistance. The plan, Sellner claims, will allow “the wounds of multiculturalism to heal.”

This is like Hitler’s Mein Kampf, all laid out in writing and scarcely anybody is paying attention.

https://www.wired.com/story/trump-office-remigration-state-department-europe-far-right