State department plans ‘office of remigration’ to support Trump agenda

The state department is seeking to create an “Office of Remigration” as part of a restructuring that will redirect America’s diplomatic apparatus to facilitate the Trump administration’s rightwing anti-immigration policies.

The plan would effectively repurpose the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), which sought to manage and facilitate the flow of people into the United States under previous administrations, into a bureau meant to help deport immigrants from the country.

A congressional notification from the state department obtained by the Guardian said that the office would be involved in “repatriation tracking”, would “actively facilitate” the “voluntary return of migrants” to other countries, and would work with the Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement to “advance the President’s immigration agenda.”

“Reflecting core Administration priorities, these offices will 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 document read.

The overhaul is part of a broader restructuring of the state department under its secretary, Marco Rubio, to create a “more agile department, better equipped to promote America’s interests and keep Americans safe across the world.”

Under the plan, which was submitted to Congress this week, the state department would eliminate or consolidate more than 300 offices and bureaus, leading to layoffs called a Reduction in Force of more than 3,400 employees.

The layoffs would not target members of consular affairsor law enforcement and other key roles at state.

The administration this week ordered US embassies to stop scheduling appointments for student visas in connection with plans to expand social media vetting of applicants. The supreme court on Friday allowed Trump to revoke the legal status of more than 500,000 people from countries including Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela under a programme meant to protect them from economic and political turmoil in their home countries.

That charge against migration has been led by Stephen Miller, the combative aide to the president who has railed against programmes that allow migrants and refugees into the country.

Remigration has become a buzzword for the global far right, with European nationalist movements like the Alternative für Deutschland brushing off allegations of racism to promote flashy ad campaigns depicting mass deportations of migrants. Donald Trump embraced the term in September, saying he would “immediately end the migrant invasion of America” and, referring to his presidential rival in last year’s election, “return Kamala’s illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration).”

The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration has been a conservative target under the Trump administration because of its role in resettling immigrants to the United States and in distributing grants to groups they say promote migration.

In an article last September for the American Conservative, Phillip Linderman, the chair of the conservative Ben Franklin Fellowship (BFF), said that it was “past time for a complete overhaul of State’s PRM bureau.”

Members of BFF have occupied prominent roles in the state department under Rubio and point to a conservative vision for remaking US diplomacy and its diplomatic apparatus.

“It is remarkable how many well-informed conservative foreign policy strategists have never even heard of PRM,” wrote Linderman. “Even those who closely follow immigration and border issues rarely understand the role PRM plays in accommodating and promoting the worldwide movement of illegal migrants.”

Several people at PRM told the Guardian after Trump’s election that they expected it could be shut down entirely. Instead, Rubio’s plan would reassign diplomats who work in the agency’s Office of Western Hemisphere Affairs and Office of International Migration to staff the new Office of Remigration.