As immigration enforcement has ramped up in the Las Vegas area, Raul Contreras’ shipping business has begun to flourish. 

Contreras specializes in sending large packages, such as motorcycles and refrigerators, to Mexico. Contreras, 50, has noted an increased demand from customers seeking to leave the U.S as immigration arrests have ballooned in the state and nationwide. This year, Contreras said he has helped at least 10 families with their self-deportation, doing everything from shipping appliances to teaching them how to wire funds home.

“There are people and families who are very afraid of what is happening,” Contreras said in an interview in Spanish with The Nevada Independent. 

Fearing potential detention as President Donald Trump continues his crackdown on immigration, some members of Las Vegas’ immigrant community have chosen to self-deport, those familiar with the community say. Although Nevada has one of the highest per-capita undocumented populations nationwide, it has few state laws to protect immigrant communities from mass deportations, according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. 

The Trump administration has begun to push self-deportation as an alternative to detention as it struggles to ramp up the costly removal process (the federal government estimates it costs more than $17,000 to arrest and deport someone involuntarily). This summer, the administration began a multimillion-dollar ad campaign urging undocumented people to self-deport, pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into ads in the Las Vegas area, according to the ad tracking organization AdImpact. 

In Las Vegas, that ad has been viewed 8.4 million times since its launch. It touts a free flight home, a stipend of up to $3,000, and a “chance to come back legally” for those who self-deport using an app called CBP Home. 

For migrants who chose not to self-deport, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says in the ad, “Your trip home will be hard. We will find you.” 

Although data is scant, recent reporting from ProPublica indicates there have been at least 25,000 departures nationwide via CBP Home. Applications for voluntary departures — an alternative to deportation different from the app — have soared to about 34,000 this year, levels not seen since at least 2000, ProPublica found. 

Kathia Quiros, a lawyer at the Las Vegas-based firm GWP Immigration Law, said she knows of three people who have self-deported this past year. None, she said, have received financial compensation for doing so, and it remains unclear how they can come back legally.

“CBP Home is a major disaster. When my clients have decided to leave the United States, they have set their own dates for leaving,” Quiros told The Indy in an interview.

Given the growing pace of arrests, Quiros urges immigrants to make preparations, such as getting their finances in order and arranging guardianship for children. Even immigrants who are in the U.S. legally should carry with them evidence of their legal status and employment authorization, Quiros said. 

“What is Plan B? Plan B is figuring out what to do in the worst case scenario,” Quiros said. “What happens with my kids? What happens with my property? … If you have a business, who will run your business?”

Mexican consulates have launched efforts this year to help citizens stuck in detention, such as a specialized app called ConsulApp Contigo. It alerts family, lawyers and consulate officials if a person is detained. This summer, the Mexican government also restarted a program for Mexican nationals known as menaje. The program streamlines the process of shipping household goods for Mexicans who choose to return home from the U.S. 

Contreras says many of his customers have taken advantage of the program — especially the lowered shipping costs — since it began. 

“You make a list of everything that is going to be taken to Mexico and on the internet, they approve it,” Contreras said, “and then with that approval, you arrive at the border with all that and they let you pass for free.”

Contreras said unauthorized immigrants aren’t the only people leaving. He has met several people who have had their spouses deported and decided to reunite with their families back home. Recently, he met a woman who decided to leave the country with her three young daughters. 

“The American dream is over for those people,” Contreras said. 

At the state level, support for undocumented immigrants in Nevada is meager. In 2023, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo ordered the state’s Office for New Americans to cut ties with organizations that provide legal support to undocumented people. Nevada also has no restrictions on law enforcement inquiring about immigration status or detaining people on behalf of ICE, according to the left-leaning Immigrant Legal Resource Center. 

Assm. Cecelia Gonzalez (D-Las Vegas), chair of the Latino Legislative Caucus, however, managed to pass a bill this legislative session dubbed The Family Unity Act. That piece of legislation (AB460) establishes a process for families to upload guardianship documents to a centralized state database called Nevada Lockbox, partly aimed at supporting families who are deported and leave their U.S. citizen children behind. 

The information, according to a state presentation, is only available to the individual who signed up for Lockbox, designees, and authorized entities, which can include registered health care providers, law enforcement or courts, depending on the type of document kept there.

Only a handful of people have utilized Nevada Lockbox for this new purpose since its launch this summer, according to the Nevada secretary of state. Gonzalez says part of the problem, beyond lack of publicity, is that many immigrant families don’t trust the government. 

“Even though our intentions were to help prevent some of our most vulnerable children ending up in the foster care system, I think that there's also a distrust in government,” Gonzalez said.