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.
The document, which was first reported on by Reuters and The Handbasket, also outlines dramatic changes to the US diplomatic services, including the elimination of much of the Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Bureau, and the addition of a new deputy assistant secretary position to oversee “Democracy and Western Values.”
“The Department of State is notifying Congress of its intent to reorganize the Department’s domestic operations, including more than 300 bureaus and offices, to refocus on core U.S. foreign policy objectives and the needs of contemporary diplomacy,” states the document’s introduction.
The State Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the creation of the Office of Remigration.
“It’s outrageous,” Wendy Via, CEO and president of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, tells WIRED. “There is no hiding from the fact that the ultimate goal of ‘remigration’ is purely about ethnic cleansing. It is a terrible day for our country when ‘remigration’ proponents are crediting the US and Trump’s administration for normalizing the term.”
Though President Donald Trump does not appear to have used the term “remigration” publicly since taking office, he did reference it last September while discussing his immigration policy plans.
“As President I will immediately end the migrant invasion of America,” Trump wrote on X. “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).”
This was quickly backed up by Stephen Miller, a close Trump adviser seen as the architect of the administration’s immigration policies, who wrote on X: “THE TRUMP PLAN TO END THE INVASION OF SMALL TOWN AMERICA: REMIGRATION!”
While remigration is likely an unknown term for most Americans, it has been gaining significant traction in Europe. In recent years, the policy of remigration has become popular among far-right and populist politicians in Europe.