The line was intended to sound triumphant. 'Voluntary departures hit record high as detained immigrants lose hope of getting released or winning in court,' read the captionKaroline Leavittposted on X, amplifying an article about migrants agreeing to leave the United States rather than continue fighting their cases.
Voluntary departures hit record high as detained immigrants lose hope of getting released or winning in courthttps://t.co/QmBzWXjhdc
Instead, it landed like a confession. Not a confession of policy, which is now well known: long-term detention, aggressive enforcement, a system designed to be punishing. What people heard was something more naked – that the suffering baked into that system was being treated as a feature, not a flaw. That a 28-year-oldWhite Housepress secretary, speaking forDonald Trump's administration, was bragging about despair.
Within hours, Leavitt's name on X was mutating into something else. 'Demon,' one user called her, and the word stuck – harsh, theatrical, but, to her critics, not out of place. 'So you aren't deporting as you say, but purposely detaining them for long lengths to torture and break them?' one person wrote. 'Demons walking this earth man, and they are running this country.'
So you aren’t deporting as you say, but purposely detaining them for long lengths to torture and break them? Demons walking this earth man, and they are running this country
Another cut straight to the tone: 'Ah yes nothing like crushing the will of people to make a girl smile eh Karoline?' A third user put into words what many clearly felt: 'Detained immigrants losing hope of getting released is... not something to brag about.'
The substance of Leavitt's post was not new. Immigration lawyers have warned for years that people in US detention centres – sometimes held for months or even years – eventually sign voluntary departure forms simply because they cannot bear the uncertainty. What jarred was seeing that bleak calculus turned into a White House talking point.
Leavitt has never traded in gentleness. In the briefing room she is pugnacious; online she is almost gleefully confrontational, using X as a kind of permanent stage. Supporters praise her as a straight-talker willing to punch back at critics. Detractors see something sharper – a political style that treats cruelty as proof of seriousness.
The row over voluntary departures is hardly an isolated incident. Not long before, Leavitt hailed a Department of Homeland Security mission in Minneapolis as a 'resounding success.' That operation ended with two US citizens shot dead by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents. To describe such an outcome in the language of victory was, at best, chillingly tone-deaf.
"Our operations are lawful, they are targeted, and they are focused on individuals who pose a serious threat to this community. They are not random and they are not political."@CMDROpAtLargeCAGovernor Walz and Mayor Frey have refused to enforce the law. DHS will FLOOD THE…pic.twitter.com/ofwAkZUTNm
Source: International Business Times UK
