Many immigrants living in the U.S. without legal documentation are facing a tough choice right now as the Trump administration ramps up deportations: do they risk staying or leave on their own terms?
NPR immigration reporter Sergio Martínez-Beltrán recently profiled a Lansing man from Kenya who has decided to self-deport and leave his family behind for now.
Samuel Kangethe came to the U.S. as a student. He married a woman here and received conditional permanent residency. But immigration officials later determined that marriage was fraudulent, though a judge hasn't ruled in that case. That's left him in legal limbo.
Since then, he has since divorced and gotten remarried and had kids.
"Sam has said that he'd rather leave on his own terms to Kenya than being sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador or to Alligator Alcatraz, which is that immigration facility in the Everglades in Florida," Sergio Martínez-Beltrán explained.
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán says Kangethe is still figuring out what his next steps are for him and his family after he goes to Kenya.
Martínez-Beltrán says covering immigration over the first half of 2025 has been a bit like the title of the 2022 Oscar-winning movie "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once." But now, people across the U.S. are starting to feel the impact of these changes in policy. He brings up Kangethe's former boss at a beer distributing company in Lansing.
"He was telling me that he believes something needs to happen with immigration and at the border. He talked about how President Biden allowed people in that should have not been allowed in, that was his opinion," he said.
"But he also said we cannot take everybody out like we're doing right now, because then good people like Kangethe will be kicked out of the country."
Interview Highlights
On what will happen after Kangethe returns to Michigan
His goal is to go back to Kenya and figure it out. He is hopeful that he'll be able to return to the U.S., maybe in 10 years, maybe longer than that. He has also talked to his wife, Latavia, about the family visiting him in Kenya. But, you know, there's so many complicated things about this, right? Because it is very expensive to go to Kenya, and it's a family of the three kids and his wife who would have to travel to Kenya. But it's important to know that, you know, until May, Sam was an accountant for the state of Michigan. Now that family has lost that income. They only have one income. Sam is going back to Kenya, and it's going to be really complicated to the family to live in Michigan.
On changing views of immigration
I think we're starting to see more and more people that supported President Trump in his reelection campaign that are starting to feel a little uncomfortable, because they are starting to feel the impact in an indirect way. In the case Kangethe, for instance, I talked to to his former boss at a beer distribution company in Lansing, and he was telling me that he believes something needs to happen with immigration and at the border. He talked about how President Biden allowed people in that should have not been allowed in, that was his opinion. But he also said we cannot take everybody out like we're doing right now, because then good people like Kangethe will be kicked out of the country.
On a common misconception people have about the immigration system
Most people think that it's easy to become a permanent resident. Oftentimes, I hear people say, "Well, why didn't he become a resident? Like, why didn't he become a legal migrant?" And it's just not that easy, right? I mean, people think that if an undocumented migrant marries a U.S. citizen, they'll automatically become a citizen or a permanent resident. That's not true. It depends the conditions of how that migrant came into the country.
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: Many immigrants living in the U.S. without legal documentation are facing a tough choice right now as the Trump administration ramps up deportations: do they risk staying or leave on their own terms?
NPR immigration reporter Sergio Martínez-Beltrán recently profiled a Lansing man from Kenya who has decided to self-deport and leave his family behind for now. Sergio joins me now to talk about his story. Thanks for being here.
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán: Hey, thank you for having me.
Saliby: How did you find this man, Samuel Kangethe? And briefly, what is the situation that led to this decision?
Martínez-Beltrán: You know, as reporters, we are constantly getting tips from people, and I learned about Sam through a social media tip. Someone reached out and said they knew this man from Kenya who had made a decision of voluntarily departing the country. And so, that person put me in touch with Sam, and we started talking from then. And Sam's story is, as many of the stories about immigration, a very complicated one.
He came to the U.S. from Kenya with a student visa, and he started studying accounting for his bachelor's degree. He finished it. He also has a master's in finance from Central Michigan University. Now throughout that process, Sam met a U.S. citizen, and he married her. And through that marriage, he was able to get a conditional permanent residency, which means that he was allowed to be in the country as a permanent resident for two years, and then he had to renew that permit again. So, when he went to renew that permit two years later, immigration officials deemed that marriage fraudulent, which meant that from that point on, Sam was deportable. He could be deported.
Now the years passed, Sam divorced that first wife, he then remarried in 2018 to his current wife, Latavia Kangethe and with her, he has three kids. Now, the complicated part here is that even though immigration officials deemed that marriage fraudulent, an immigration judge never made that decision, never ruled on that, so that has left Sam for years, at this point, in a legal limbo, and that's why we're here.
Sam has said that he'd rather leave on his own terms to Kenya than being sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador or to Alligator Alcatraz, which is that immigration facility in the Everglades in Florida.
Saliby: But he hasn't committed any crimes? It's just he doesn't have the right legal status to stay in the country.
Martínez-Beltrán: Correct. He has not committed any crime, but immigration officials have said that his first marriage was fraudulent, and that makes him deportable. Again, a judge has not made that determination.
Saliby: So, it's his goal to return to Kenya and then apply to come back to be with his family?
Martínez-Beltrán: His goal is to go back to Kenya and figure it out. He is hopeful that he'll be able to return to the U.S., maybe in 10 years, maybe longer than that. He has also talked to his wife, Latavia, about the family visiting him in Kenya. But, you know, there's so many complicated things about this, right?
Because it is very expensive to go to Kenya, and it's a family of the three kids and his wife who would have to travel to Kenya. But it's important to know that, you know, until May, Sam was an accountant for the state of Michigan. Now that family has lost that income. They only have one income. Sam is going back to Kenya, and it's going to be really complicated to the family to live in Michigan. You know, there are all these outstanding questions of whether they'll be able to pay for their home, whether the kids will be able to go to college in a few years.
There's so many outstanding questions that I think that, you know, thinking about whether the family can go to Kenya or not is adding additional pressure to the family.
Saliby: What has it been like being an immigration reporter as the system undergoes major changes under the Trump administration? Things are not operating as they were.
Martínez-Beltrán: I keep telling people, you know that movie, "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once," right? So, that's the vibe. So many things are happening, so many things are changing. I mean, certainly, the first few months of the Trump administration, they were very, very intense, because the president was pushing for policies that were challenged in court, and it was very, very convoluted. There was a lot of things happening at the same time.
I think now we're starting to see the impact on the ground in a different way that we had not seen a few months ago. So, it's been very, very intense. I think it has also shown how things evolve. And I think we know that, as reporters, right, as we continue covering these issues like we know things evolve, but even the opinion of the public is changing, right? I think we're starting to see more and more people that supported President Trump in his reelection campaign that are starting to feel a little uncomfortable, because they are starting to feel the impact in an indirect way.
In the case Kangethe, for instance, I talked to to his former boss at a beer distribution company in Lansing, and he was telling me that he believes something needs to happen with immigration and at the border. He talked about how President Biden allowed people in that should have not been allowed in, that was his opinion. But he also said we cannot take everybody out like we're doing right now, because then good people like Kangethe will be kicked out of the country. And I think people are starting to feel that more and more.
Saliby: What do you think is a common misconception people have about the immigration system? And I'm not maybe just talking about the Trump administration, but maybe just how the system works, how this big machine works in the country.
Martínez-Beltrán: The one thing that people in interviews keep bringing up over and over, and I keep trying to correct them over and over, is that most people think that it's easy to become a permanent resident. Oftentimes, I hear people say, "Well, why didn't he become a resident? Like, why didn't he become a legal migrant?" And it's just not that easy, right?
I mean, people think that if an undocumented migrant marries a U.S. citizen, they'll automatically become a citizen or a permanent resident. That's not true. It depends the conditions of how that migrant came into the country.
So, for so many people that came into the country without legal status or are here without legal status, for so many of them, it's impossible or nearly impossible to become a legal resident or a migrant with legal status in the U.S.
Saliby: Sergio Martínez-Beltrán is an NPR immigration reporter and a former WKAR intern. Thank you for joining me.
Martínez-Beltrán: That's right. It's so good being with you.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
