The recent frenzy of attempts to redraw electoral districts is ultimately about voice and silence in US democracy. When districts are cut to maximize one ideological perspective, the representation of large concentrations of Americans with opposing views can be diluted or erased. In many of the new Republican-drawn state maps, it will be as if such citizens have departed entirely.

Since Donald Trump enacted a series of policies that undermine institutional checks and balances, new population data suggests that, at the same time, many such citizens have departed quite literally.

They emigrated. And this may be even more troubling for US democracy.

It is complicated to count, but a Wall Street Journal analysis of 15 countries providing full or partial 2025 data found that at least 180,000 Americans voluntarily left the country last year – a number likely to grow as more countries release complete figures. The number of Americans arriving in the European Union’s 27 member states is at a record high and rising – in some cases, like Ireland, doubling over the past year alone.

In other circumstances, Americans are being pressured to leave. The Department of Homeland Security reported 675,000 deportations in 2025, but also 2.2 million “self-deportations”, which likely include US citizens leaving with undocumented or otherwise vulnerable family members. According to a Mexican government survey cited by the US Census Bureau, 50,000 US-born Mexican Americans moved south across the border last year.

Because many of these émigrés are disenchanted liberals and others made to feel unwelcome in the United States, some have termed this outward flow the “Donald Dash”.

But according........

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