INTERVIEW Francisco Duarte is one of a growing number of immigrants taking up President Trump’s self-exit bonus Francisco Duarte has spent eight years battling immigration agentsJIMMY GALT FOR THE TIMES Friday October 24 2025, 7.29pm BST, The Times After three decades of calling California home and $100,000 spent fighting for the legal right to do so, Francisco Duarte decided it was time to deport himself. On Thursday, he and his wife, Rosenda Perez, walked to a McDonald’s to turn themselves in to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The agents removed the couple’s ankle monitors and sent them to their new home in Tijuana, Mexico. Duarte arrived in National City, 11 miles across the border, from Mexico in 1994 and built a business selling ice cream. His US-born children — two daughters and two sons — were raised here. He spent decades building an ice-cream business in San DiegoJIMMY GALT FOR THE TIMES Now aged 59, he wheeled his ice-cream cart out for the last time on US soil on Sunday. He sang with his Christian congregation for the last time on Wednesday night. And at 9am on Thursday, he hugged goodbye to his two boys, aged 27 and 25. Top stories 1 2 3 4 5 His 20-year-old twin daughters missed the send-off: one is studying at Stanford University and the other at Harvey Mudd College. Duarte’s battle for legal status began eight years ago in 2017, when he was captured by ICE. After seven months in detention he was released with the help of lawyers. The years that followed were filled with never-ending court appointments, futile appeals and more than $100,000 spent on lawyers. Top stories 1 2 3 4 5 “Some of them have stolen money from us, some have tricked us. Some were honest and told us we were just buying time,” Duarte recounted. “I started having back pain. Suddenly, I was having panic attacks. I had to get medicated. I had to see a psychiatrist. And I realised until I sort this out, I’d keep having those symptoms.” The couple gather with friends and relatives to worship before his departureJIMMY GALT FOR THE TIMES On September 22, both Duarte and Perez, 57, were ordered to leave the US by an immigration court. Authorities made them wear ankle monitors to track their departure. The couple weren’t yet entirely out of options: they had 30 days to file another appeal on the judge’s decision. But the right path was clear. “We are getting older and older, and we don’t want to see this country out when we’re old and sick,” Duarte told The Times. Francisco Duarte and his wife prepare for self deportation from San Diego into TijuanaJIMMY GALT FOR THE TIMES Two million undocumented immigrants have been deported since President Trump took office on January 20, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Like Duarte and his wife, about 1.6 million of them chose self-deportation, lured by the administration’s offer of a $1,000 exit bonus. Duarte’s story captured international attention unexpectedly, when he explained his decision to self-deport on a video posted to TikTok by one of his daughters. “We’ve fought court after court after court,” Duarte said in the post. “We were holding on to the hope that everything would turn out fine. It didn’t. For my own health, for my children and for my wife, we have decided it’s best to part ways from this beautiful country that gave us so much.” The video went viral, garnering 190,000 likes and nearly a million views. A GoFundMe page set up by one of the daughters, Aracely, has raised more than $57,000. Tracking tags must be worn for the duration of the journeyJIMMY GALT FOR THE TIMES Before coming to the US in the Nineties, Duarte was an entrepreneur in his home state of Sonora. His business went under when the dollar strengthened against the peso. He first crossed the border illegally in 1994 and returned to Sonora to secure a visa in 2000, which allowed him to return to Mexico periodically to see family. That visa was revoked in 2014, but he remained in the US, crossing back over to Mexico every six months until ICE detained him in 2017. “I lied to [ICE]. That’s why they’re punishing me,” he said. “I haven’t seen my family [in Mexico] in 11 years. My mom died, my dear brother died ten months ago and I couldn’t go to Sonora.” Perez is comforted by the couple’s sons. Their twin daughters are at university and were unable to make the tripTimes Newspapers Ltd The couple’s new home in Tijuana is a 35-minute drive from their old one in National City. They’re planning to use the money they raised to open a restaurant. The profits from the business will be used to support their children, who will be able to visit from California at the weekends. “Our children have to eat, they have to keep going to school, so we have to keep working,” Duarte said. “I’ve wanted for many years to start my own business, but I couldn’t do it here because I didn’t have papers. “In the mornings I want to sell caguamanta, Sonora-style [seafood]. And in the evenings, we want to sell tortas.” After so many years fighting to keep his old life, Duarte is at peace with this new one. “I’ve said my goodbyes,” he said. “I feel calm. Thank God I can leave on my own terms.”