Bitcoin Forum

This is something which has been rolling around my brain for the last 24 hours...

I read yesterday of a 73yo woman who was deported from the US by ICE, its been
happening to ordinary residents in the US not just dangerous criminals and it
can happen in other countries for example Australia.

Anyway the point of the thread is NOT to debate whether the deportations are
justified or not, this thread is to discuss what happens when you are picked up.

Assuming you are picked up outside your home and deported you lose possession of
your belongings including your hardware wallet and seed (assuming you dont carry it
with you and assuming the officials havent confiscated it)

I cant figure out how I would survive if I had no contacts left in the country
they deported me to, with possibly no or limited money and no access to my
bank or to my Bitcoin.

The vast majority of us will never encounter such a scenario but...

Outside of asking a family member/friend to retrieve your HW wallet and/or seed
What do you do in such a scenario?

While it's generally not recommended, IMO this one of scenario where brainwallet or having encrypted cloud backup may help you.

One of recommendations is having multiple backups at different locations but I know it's non sense in deportation case too. It's because most of Bitcoin users are very unlikely have ability to store wallet backups in different nations. Even if we can, I am not sure it is a safe wallet backup storage in practice.

Usually it's not common to take wallet backup storage too far like this by lack of chance for regular backup checks which is a very important step in wallet backup storage.


It is not recommended to use brains but if my practice is diversifying my coins to different wallets, at least I will try to use my brain and memory to remember wallet mnemonic seed of a biggest wallet.

I mean, an immigrant should aware if they might not able to live forever in that country regardless they have a student visa, work visa etc, except they're a permanent resident. So if you're not yet a permanent resident, don't think you will be 100% safe, you have to think about every possible way to access your coins.

Asking a friend and carry hardware wallet on airport doesn't feel safe for me.

Encrypted file on cloud doesn't look that bad to be honest.

I don't know what the exact procedure is for deportations when it comes to the US, but shouldn't those who are deported be allowed to take at least some personal belongings with them?

If that is not the case, then the only way for a deported person to regain possession of their backup is to encrypt it and store it online, and try to remember the password. In that case, you would have access to your backup anywhere in the world where you have internet access.

I like that you used a 73years old for example, is it possible that this woman landed in the US all by her self? i have my doubts because that's a very old person who will always need assistance, someone who knows her will be in the states.

now let's say this happened to someone younger maybe in the 50s, you are indeed right that they will lose access to their wallet backups, unless they have a steel braced into a part of their body or they always wore their stainless steel with the recovery seed around their neck always.

Even if this is a new lesson that we all claiming to have learned here, let's not forget about the opposite, let's say this woman have her recovery seed on her before the deportation, the people responsible for the deportation might take it from her and pretend like nothing happened.

Here is another possibility, what if she was kidnapped? kidnappers will found the recovery seed, she will be forced to explain what it is and if they are US citizens they will surely knows how a recovery seed looks like.

My final say is that it is even more dangerous to walk around with your recovery seed than keeping them in your safe at home.

If her property in the US is not confiscated, as you suggested, she should reach out to close contacts there to help retrieve some of her personal belongings, especially the hardware wallets.

We rarely think about cases like this, but there are certain unlikely situations that could put our keys at risk. If we don't plan for them, many of us Bitcoin and crypto users could face a significant loss. This is an important consideration for investors who often prefer to live in countries with fewer regulatory concerns and where their human rights are protected.

The key is simply to have a backup plan in case an event like this happens. While some might consider using online storage as a solution in this scenario, it's not ideal. It's almost always safer to know your keys were physically left behind somewhere secure than to have them exposed on the internet.

This where trust and brainwallet has to be thought out for the persons that have literally turned down as bad the idea of trusting a blood relative with an idea of our keys and it location. A wallet with such value must have to be retrieved by someone we trust right before the nightmare.

For a deportee situation a brainwallet will cancel the problem of facing the risk of trusting the wrong person to your wallet. Having stored our bitcoin in a hard wallet and kept in secured physical position, memorising the keys to ensure we can access them anywhere right from our head can be an extra layer for a backup plan preventing a loss not only to deportation scenarios but in fire razed scenarios.

It is always recommended to have different wallet backups and store them at difference places but a scenario of deportation is something very extreme. You will no longer be able to move around in that nation and likely have to depend on the others to get the wallet backups for you. That's terrible as chance to have no people who can trust and are able to access the wallet backups for you is not small. In addition, trusting someone with your wallet backups is another big risk of losing your coins.

It is a more severe scenario than Beirut explosion - Lesson to learn from this.  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5266821.0)

What would you do if you're goign 200kmp/s in a residential area with a truck carrying 10 tons of ammonium nitrate under artillery fire?
First thing would be to ask yourself how the hell did you get in that situation!
That poor woman has been in the states for 30 years!!!!


Bruh, she should have gone out of the country BEFORE Satoshi invented Bitcoin!


You don't lose ownership!
You just assign someone with POA to take care of your belongings.


Why no access to your bank?
You still have your bank account and you still have your money, deportation doesn't mean confiscation of assets.
Also, you weren't a US citizen in the first place when you opened that so why would the bank care?

Yes I have read that brain wallets are not 100% reliable, it still might be a
good idea to have a second HW with some coins and make it an exercise to
memorise the seed. Everyone should do that while still having the actual seed
secured elsewhere.


Using the example I gave above, the woman was in the US for 33 years and
had built her life there, then unexpectedly she is deported back to India,
when she landed there she must have had only what she had when she was
arrested in the US. Her bank account would not be recognised in India until
she went through the process of getting it transferred, thats not instant though.

I would suggest enhancing the brainwallet with encrypted seed-phrase hints. Writing them on paper, in an electronic file, and so on are not suitable. You should apply the hint to something you always have with you, such as human skin. Create a tattoo containing "images" of the 12 words, so that when you look at them, you'll remember the original words. In other words, it should be a combination of a brainwallet and information encrypted in a way you understand. This will act as an "anchor" for your memory, and if you forget the words, the tattoo with images encrypted as "images" will help you recall them. Also, this seed-phrase will always be with you. Wherever you are. Until the end. Of course, this seed-phrase can't be displayed anywhere else, because if it is compromised, it will be difficult to change the tattoo.

This is a complex and unsuitable option for you, but in my opinion, it is more reliable.

The deportation is not unexpected because she is an illegal immigrant and also aware of the aggressive raids by (ICE) officials under the present government. If I were in her shoes, I would have made adequate preparations for my deportation because it can happen at anytime. Everything about my money in the form of fiat and crypto would have been kept in conditions that I can access them if I am deported. Just like others have said memorising the seed phrase or using encrypted cloud backup would be helpful in this condition,    

Still not recommended like you said, cloud backup have messed many people up, I will only do this if the amount of the total asset isn't that much, in the hundreds of dollars, the moment it's over a thousand in dollars it is best to buy a hardware wallet, how you want to move it around is your problem.

Honestly this isn't the advice we should be sharing base on what OP shared, instead of saying that brainwallet or cloud backup isn't generally bad in this type of situation why can't we advice people to stay away from crime, any type of crime that can get you deported from a foreign country abstain from it.

OP labeled her, the old woman as ordinary, I refuse to believe it, it is nothing out of the ordinary that some people are doing everything they can to survive in today's world, these people can't be clean and still get deported, ordinary residents? They are not ordinary.

Recognized? By who? Who is in charge of recognizing bank accounts?  ;D
Or do you want to say my bank account in Germany is not recognized by India, lol!!! That would mean tommorow the European Union is going to stop working since there is no branch of Erste Bank in Italy or of Banco Santander in Poland.

She just needs to have a credit/debit card attached to her account, which 101% of the people have in US, and it she can get money from every ATM in the world, she can get a bank account in India the moment she lands and a make a wire from the her US account, this is no longer the stone age she will get her money in under 24 hous.

Seriously, stop making such a big deal of a thing that can be solved in hours.


That's not how things work in deportations and do use logic for a moment, if they get you on the beach they will send you back to India in a bra and bikini?  ;D ;D
https://www.ice.gov/doclib/detention-standards/2011/2-5.pdf

By law, a citizen cannot be deported from the country, but if citizenship was acquired and the person is subject to deportation, steps should be taken to preserve the seed phrase online. There are many ways to do this, and encryption can help. Simply remember your email password.

Unless one can access a cloud service from the country they were deported to and that's assuming such a person even opted for cloud support services, then the other option would be to consult with a qualified attorney of whom their specialty includes asset recovery or international law or even a technical expert like someone who specializes in digital forensics to assist in recovery procedures, otherwise it's to let go and focus on better things.

Wow this is a crazy scenario but im sure people are facing this today, i wonder what kind of notice if any thst they get to collect whatever belongs they have, probably little to none

If you are deported &  lose your hardware wallet &  seed phrase, your bitcoins are effectively inaccessible. Without the seed phrase, there is no way to recover your wallet, harsh but fair & reality..

I see a lot of people talking about brainwallet or having encrypted cloud backup, using these is the same as using an exchange.

What I think you can do is back up your seed phrase, write it down &  store it in multiple secure locations, such as a fireproof safe or a trusted family members home. You can also use a multisig wallet, services like Bitkey offer multisig wallets where you hold two keys &  a third party holds the third. You may also want to consider giving a trusted person power of attorney to manage your crypto assets in case of a legal emergency. You may also want to consult with a legal professional about your rights &  options for accessing your assets after deportment.

The ultimate bottom line is, not your keys, not your coins.

First of all, keeping yourself safe is a priority. You can ask for help from NGOs and seek whatever you need from them including internet access or any way of contact. If you have internet access, you should move your coins to a different wallet with the seed you have stored somewhere else other than your house. If you didn’t, then you’d have to ask someone else to get it for you. Just make sure they are trustworthy.

I travel to the Netherlands every year and I know I cant use a particular bank card
(from another European country) because it isnt "recognised" everywhere. Cant buy
travel tickets, cant withdraw cash
from ATM's. So its not a "Who" doesnt recognise my bank account/card.

So assuming you are arrested and deported and have all your bank cards on your person,
have suitable arrangements to be able to access your Bitcoin anywhere in the world
then there is nothing to worry about - most people dont though.

The point of the thread is about being able to access notably your Bitcoin when
you find yourself removed from your HW and or seed.

In theory everything should work out very fine, just do this, and just do that, in reality
theory can quickly get thrown out the window for any number of reasons and you
can quickly find yourself in a bind in such a situation.

When we are about to be deported, there should still be a procedure, the security forces cannot immediately expel us from our residence, unless we are a criminal, but people are still given the opportunity to retrieve their belongings, but if that is not the case, perhaps storing it online in an encrypted manner is an option that can be taken to back up our seed phrase, but we need to make sure that we add some additional words to our seed phrase and save it on 2 different and reputable platforms, since saving it online is more risky.

That's a very hash policy but since the law can't be questioned then we don't have to argue it. Instead it'd be better we discuss about the happening on the lose of your belongings. So assuming I'm a US foreigner base or elsewhere that the rule is effective, I fear how a bitcoin owner who has only planted his seed phrase around the environs can recover their bitcoin if they won't have the chances to pick the wallets keys. That means vulnerables living in that such places with consciousness of having hold to their funds secured with the use of hardware or having your seed phrase stored in the nearby is tantamount to lose it.
I seriously can't find myself in such areas because as a hustler in a forum country like that, I'd store more of my money in bitcoin to curb inflation of saving in the bank with how long time I'd spent out there. So following this road to empty hand if victimized, this can be avoided by storing our seed seed phrase online such as saving in an email draft that isn't linked to other network providers or any users connected to your account. In this scenario, offline seed phrase system might be risky to claim our funds our all long of accumulated that value of bitcoin.

I haven’t given this much of a thought given that, I reside in my country of origin more often than not but, assuming I did live in some foreign land, I can’t imagine how devastating this could be.

By the way, is this how deportation actually works? You don’t get the chance to pick up a good number of your important documents even under surveillance?

If that be the case then, the issue isn’t really with the fact that, you might not have your wallet details with you but, something is wrong with the system and should be looked into.

It’s good to have you raise this issue for migrants as it’s indeed something to consider as a Bitcoin investor.

I've read about PoA (Power of Attorney) that can handle your property or other matters. Maybe you can seek legal assistance if that were to happen.

It could also be reasonable for us to encrypt our seed phrase and split it parts by parts to store it in the cloud, could expose us to other danger of getting hacked and losing our seed phrase but since the seed phrase in encrypted I doubt it will be that easy.

This scenario could definitely happen and it certainly is a concern.

The best and only viable option is to get out of the jurisdiction that may do these things to you (ie. reverse migration back home), specially now that the world is moving toward a larger scale armed conflict. You can read about what the US regime did to Americans who came from Japan during the WW2 (Executive Order 9066) by mass arresting everyone and putting them in concentration camps.

That's because next move may not be deportation specially if the conflict grows and US regime (same as other authoritarian regimes in the West) gets more desperate for workers (slaves mostly), in which case it doesn't matter how you store your bitcoins, you will have no access when you are in a concentration camp without any access to anything including the internet.

Apart from that the only other option is unfortunately storing the seed phrase on the internet. In which case it has to be heavily encrypted with a strong password then stored in multiple locations (eg. google drive, dropbox, onedrive, etc.) so that if you get deported you can easily access your money.

That costs a lot of money, money that the deported person may no longer have.
Additionally, these are special times where the rule of law goes away and the ruling class becomes more brutal and breaks the law. Again check the WW2 events in the USA...

Everyone should memorize their 12 words and keep multiple secure backups of their seed phrase in different locations. This woman, even though she has been in the U.S. for 30 years, surely still has relatives in India. Im from the Balkans, in Southeastern Europe, and in our tradition family is the most important, considered sacred, and family ties remain strong even when people move far away. Help among family members (financial or emotional) is normal and expected.These bonds are preserved through many generations. I believe its similar in India and other Eastern countries. It’s not like in America and other Western nations, where everyone mostly lives for themselves and relatives usually gather only for Christmas.So this woman surely has a lot of close relatives back in her home country.

Forget about relying on family and friends; trusting them and hoping they can handle tough situations is a recipe for disaster. That's a weak spot waiting to break.

The only real solution to your problem is having backups in different places. If your plan doesn't spread across different areas and need several things to go wrong before it fails, it's not a good security plan.

What I would do, and what I do, is avoid finding myself in that situation.


That's right, although he's talking about someone who is residing illegally in a country, and in that case they won't have several properties where they can store multiple copies of the seeds, because they can't legally buy real estate to begin with. But even in that situation, you always have to have a backup plan just in case what the OP describes happens to you.

According to their website:


https://www.ice.gov/self-deportation

So most likely you can't retrieved your hardware wallet or anything related to crypto if you are arrested, unless you do self-deportation.


That could be one way to get it back, but then again, this is a rare case that we should be putting our back-up in the internet. We also advises not to do this because it's always online. But there could be exception to the rules.

I'm aware cloud storage doesn't always have good reputation due to them prevent user access their data or closed it service. But the risk could be reduced by using multiple cloud storage provider.


OP clearly ask how to keep having access to Bitcoin in such scenario, rather than preventing such scenario. I won't debate whether the deportation (along with asset confiscation) is justifiable or not.


Brainwallet basically works by hashing text into 256-bit data which as private key, so saying brainwallet is same with using exchange is ridiculous. As for encrypted backup on cloud storage, the cloud storage provider doesn't have access to your Bitcoin either (unless they decide to copy and decrypt it).

Correct - I couldnt articulate that myself - this is the crux of the issue, you could be picked up,
detained for a period of time without contact with friends/family and just deported. You may or may
not have your belongings [wallet/cash/smartphone/etc] with you when detained. Anyway as I posted in
the OP I was aiming for the discussion to be more about access to your Bitcoin in such events as opposed
to the case of any deportations. I similar event could be while you are an extended holiday in a
different country and are unable to return home due to whatever reasons. I know, I know you
could just "call a friend" and get money transferred to your account.


and a more violent, aggressive and hardline approach from right thinking populations on agendas
like immigration which often paints a lot of people with the one brush. More and more people
could find themselves in such a situation as per the thread theme.

---

So I didnt want to discuss the rights and wrongs of deportation specifically rather to discuss making
sure we put plans in place to make sure as best we can that we have access to our finances in
whatever situations arise.


correct ABC

Unbelievable, and all this in the 21st century in a country that claims to have the greatest democracy and protection of human rights. They behave like the Nazis during the Second World War when they caught Jews in the streets and houses and deported them to death camps, with the difference that they did not prevent them from taking their personal belongings (although for some other reasons).

The truth is that if it already happened and you do not have the encrypted copy of your seed phrase or a part of your seed phrase for recovery, I think there is nothing you can do about it.

For someone who never prepared for deportation and does not have any of these to recover a hardware wallet, I think the only option is to reach out to a trusted friend or close person to see if they can help retrieve or send the funds, but only if they are genuine and trustworthy. If they cannot be trusted, there is no need to think about this or even to try because you may end up not having it at all.

I'll limit myself to technical solutions to prevent such a scenario, because in the situation where you are already being deported and not longer accessing your keys, you indeed need assistance and Bitcoin's technology can't save you.

One of the ideas that crossed my mind is using an inheritance protocol with locktime. You would still need a third person in most scenarios, but there is less trust involved than if you simply give them a backup.

So what you can do is to send each year (or each time you move your funds) a transaction with Locktime 1 year ahead to an address a relative in your original home country owns the keys (Note: The transaction needs to be sent to your relative too, because it won't propagate in the Bitcoin network.). Few days before the locktime expires you move your funds to a different address and repeat the process.

If you're deported you can then contact your relative and request them to get the keys back after at most a year. Above all if it's a person you don't see that often, there is less temptation for them to simply steal your coins than when you had given them a full backup key and they have all the time of the world to access the coins. You could also transfer the locktime transaction to a 2-of-3 multisig for example, where three relatives hold a key, and you need two of them to give you back your funds (two of course could still conspire against you).

This is of course mostly useful for a cold or "semi cold" wallet where you deposit funds for HODL and not for payments or trading.

A solution combining that with what ABCbits wrote is sending the Locktimed transaction to a multisig address with the keys stored in different online clouds. You have however to care to be able to identify to the cloud services from anywhere.

You also use exchanges or custodial wallets instead of relatives as the destination of the Locktime address: if you are able to identify there with your passport or ID even when losing the access password, then you will be able to claim the funds.

If the internet and cloudsaving is are too risky and the brainwallet has lots of holes, why not go with this idea? Let's go primitive and let the tattoos give a hint of our seed phrases.  I really like this idea by m2017.  The tattoos are to remind us of the key words for our brainwallet.  I believe no one will get a hint that these tattoos are the key to our Bitcoin stash  ;D,  unless of course we brag about it.

This idea ↓↓↓ is really great, IMO . ↓↓↓

Therefore, need to ensure that seed phrase is always with you. This gives you mobility and the advantage of not having to return to the locations where you left seed (this also creates the risk of being discovered by unauthorized persons). Life can be very unpredictable, and you never know whether you'll be able to return to the location with seed phrase stored (and whether your relatives and friends will be there to pass it on).

Accessing a cloud backup requires a login and password, which also need to be stored somewhere. If you forget or lose it, access to the backup will be lost.

I think if you use cloud storage, you need to complicate the storage process, meaning you need to make it difficult for unauthorized persons to access the data.

For example, you could pre-encrypt the encrypted seed phrase with a Caesar cipher or another known, accessible, or understandable method. This means that if attackers gain access to the cloud and decrypt your backup, they're faced with another level of protection.

Brainwallet + an encrypted seed phrase tattoo is also not the most secure method, but at the moment, I can't think of anything better. Tattooed skin is not the most durable material and is susceptible to injury. Damaging this area can also lead to the loss of part of the encrypted seed phrase. There's no perfect way to store the seed phrase. But in my opinion, the main advantage of this method is that the seed will always be with you, and no one but you will know about it.

Brainwallet alone is just as dangerous, because while intoxicated or delirious\in a dream, you can accidentally utter the seed phrase (although this sounds a bit paranoid, it can happen). Therefore, the seed phrase encrypted as a tattoo will protect even from you. In other words, it should be possible for you to "decode" it based on your tattoo, rather than memorize it.

This isn't a call to use this method, but rather a reflection on the best solution to this problem. In my opinion, having a tattoo "with meaning, like the seed phrase", is better than having a "meaningless" tattoo. This will have both aesthetic and practical benefits.

I also have another (slightly futuristic) idea for storing the seed phrase: implanting a capsule (not made of metal) under your skin containing information about the seed phrase. The problem I currently see is how to ensure that only you, and not someone else in a public place, can read the information in this capsule.

So, the idea is to always have the seed phrase with you (without anyone else knowing about it), allowing you to "decode" it at any time and use your wallet. The only question is how exactly to "add" the hidden seed phrase to your body so you can carry it with you at all times.

Don't suggest the option used in prisons. :)

Splitting the key into parts creates the problem of having to visit multiple locations, which can be difficult, for example, due to geopolitical situations.

Therefore, ideally, I believe, the keys should always be with you. The only problem is the method of implementing this.

For me theirs no solution for the person to have access to the seed phrase provided that he has nobody to contact for the country is been deported from, and secondly it has not pasted or encrypted the seed phrase on recovery before the incident of deportation.

If the person have friends or any relatives, to contact after it has gotten to he or her country, it would have be better, another thing about deportation is that, it may happen anytime to anybody, so someone who is dealing cryptocurrency, have to operate on a safety measure,

To backup it's necessary documents that carries he or her vital informations by having friends that can have access to your documents when you're not around or available

Because there's no way you can documents a seed phrase online, everything about safety documentation of seed phrase have to be offline and it's impossible to many people to memorise seed phrase, so having contacts of neighbours that can access your resident is the best option, and all these can be actuallised is if government have not confiscate the belongings of the person.

For me I don't think a brain wallet is a good solution to immigrants saving their passphrase, it is dangerous. If I'm an immigrant and I know I have a limited stay over there either because of being deported, I will look for means to project my wallet passphrase and for now what is coming to my mind is saving it in my email and then safeguard my email password and using strong security like 2FA so that before you break into my email, it will be a difficult task.

What about having a USB with no attachment to the Internet with the said keys? - After all, why have it somewhere where somebody would be able (potentially) to get it?

The chances would be smaller with a flash drive or something like that rather than going for the Email, imo..

I think, that will be an ill-treatment for the official not to allow the deportee access to his or her personal belongings.it will amount to unfair and great injustice.we have to treat every human equal as we are before God and not like a common criminal.its his or her right to pick up there belongings if caught in the case of visa expiration or criminality as the case maybe.

^ The case would start if you are a criminal of sorts: then you would be deported much harsher than usual.

And in that case, you would need to see it coming and be prepared / have precautions done to not to get into such a situation.

You could seek help from your embassy or fellow countrymen to help you establish in the new country if you like to remain there, or they could help get you back to your original country, and/or even assist you in getting back your documents/hardware wallet in the country you were deported from. I think your national embassy in your deported country would be in the right position to communicate with your national embassy in Australia to get the owner of the house to help retrieve and send your things. Or the embassy could use agency responsible for such role. I would rather use friends/family to do this but since it is out of the question, I would rely on embassies.


Back to surviving in the country you are deported to, the embassy, fellow countrymen, Nomad/stateless Bitcoin communities, Church (or just relying on your CREATOR to survive alone), etc would be a great way to survive. A perfect combination out of the list mentioned is relying on Church/Christain Bitcoin stateless or nomad communities to help you establish in their communities (which could be both online and offline) where you could work for bitcoins, buy and sell with the communities especially with/for bitcoins.

By the way, it's always important to identify with a group or groups with global reach, especially in time of anarchy, so that whereever you find yourself, you can connect with them. And the best way they will know you are really part of them is to test your knowledge about their belief or shared principles. The groups could also make contact with their members in Australia to help retrieve your hardware wallet.

If you have no other choices, no self-control in such situations, you must find very last options with support from the others. But in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry, the saying is always "It's not your key, it's not your coins" and by asking the others for help of retrieving the wallets, wallet backups for, you must assume that you will have high risk of losing that wallet or wallet backups.

It's no guarantee like if the support comes from the embassy staffs, they will do right things and don't steal your bitcoin or cryptocurrencies. Everthing can happen in life and when you don't have self-control, you must assume worst thing to come with you.

If it is your fortune, I think it is possible to try remember that wallet mnemonic seed daily, then you will never forget it.

If we are assuming a situation where after the deportation of the person in question, he is not allowed access to his apartment in it entirety and there is no one at all that can help him retrieve his items, it only means that his phrase is gone and gone for good. it looks like an hypothetical situation because you are not in such situation. but imagine that you are sent out of your current country and that there is no one that can give you your seed phrase. what can you do in such situation? even though we do not wish that such happens, if i face such situation, my asset will be gone.

These are part of the instances we can look at and agree that keeping your seed phrase offline has it own issues also. if there is a means to, it is best to save your seed phrase in your memory even if it is not entirely safe due to forgetfulness but is better to have it there as back up rather than not having where to get it from at all.
 

It is important to not hide the objective facts if you want accurate and objective answers.  

"ordinary residents" - you mean people who have broken the law to come to the US.  Just as every other country has laws and border controls.

"no contacts left in the country they deported me to" - are you in the US or other country illegally?  

"limited money and no access to my bank or to my Bitcoin" - if you are somewhere illegally, it is probably best to return to the country you came from with your possessions and then find a way to go where you want to go legally.  If you have spent 30 years in a country and have still not been able to obtain citizenship, perhaps reevaluate the plan.

"retrieve your HW wallet and/or seed"/"what would you do"?:
1. Memorize it is one option.  
2. Take steps to ensure that I don't get into a situation where I am in a place illegally and could be deported for breaking the law at any time.
3. Take a trip to the country I could be deported to and put a copy of the seeds (encrypted) in a safety deposit box in that country just in case the law catches up with me.
4. Give an encrypted copy to a professional trustee in the country I am in and then if I am deported ask them to send it to me.
5. Given everyone has a phone on them most of the time, keep an encrypted copy there and since you have it on your possession you would no doubt be able to take it with you.





And particularly in the case the OP mentions it is ILLEGAL immigrant, e.g. someone who has broken the law to go somewhere.  

I don't call someone an "immigrant" if they have broken the law to enter my house, I call them a burglar.



Which in the case of someone in a country illegally, they are, by definition a criminal by breaking immigration laws.

If I go to Mexico or China or Japan or Korea or Italy and overstay my visa, will they just let me stay and work and vote?



Unfair and great injustice to the citizens of the country where the person has broken the law to remain.  It is a simple thing:  if you go somewhere, you follow the laws of the place you go.

Exactly! I have all the sympathy to people who get wrongfully detained or convicted, but 0 for people who do wrong and complain they were caught.

You go to another country and act like an entitled child and I personally know such people. They rent a house, don't pay for it, ignore all the warnings and cry when you finally get evicted or your account gets frozen. Not to mention people who buy bitcoin, keep it on their phone with no backup and then it's OMG my phone died or my phone got stolen I lost all my BTC.

I can only relate to an arrest because when I go abroad I don't take all my bitcoin with me, so even if they'd somehow try to deport me without a warning (which will never happen) I wouldn't have to worry about my BTC. So let's say you get arrested, have no friends and family to ask for help and can't access the money, your only hope is that they release you soon, which will most likely happen on a minor charge. Let's say you got drunk and did something, maybe you got into a fight or damaged property, maybe it was a car accident, in all those cases you'd get out in 24-48 hours and could do whatever you want.

If it's a big thing like murder, GTA, large amount of drugs, where you're going you won't need bitcoin. Get ready for some ramen noodle diet! :D

There was one instance of a man getting pulled over several years ago, but not by ICE, just by regular police for what I think was tax crimes or something, I don't remember.

The police's body cam footage captured his seed phrase written on a piece of paper, it was broadcast on the news, and the poor guy's wallet was wiped within an hour. It went viral on Twitter.

So, better to not have your seed phrase around with you in a car if you think you're going to get picked up by ICE.

You've got to have the ability to quickly move your coins to a new seed phrase, and it would help if you do get to take your possessions with you during the deportation process.

There are so many posts about finding a trusted person, but I vividly remember several threads discussing whether it's worth entrusting your seed phrase to someone in the event of your death. Most always said we shouldn't trust it to anyone, that relatives, children, or spouses could betray and steal everything.
 
Now I see something different, and people want to entrust their seed phrases to trusted individuals. Who are these people? I see the deportation situation as a subsequent ban on entry into this country, which is essentially tantamount to death. If someone has something they want to entrust to someone, there's always the possibility that the other person won't keep their promise. They've left and are unlikely to return. Trusting someone is just adding stress to your life.

Good idea with the tattoos. And yes, have lots of them so that even the person who got them can't copy them. There are plenty of people with multiple tattoos and multiple quotes on them right now. With a tattoo, you can encrypt words from a phrase or even a password for something like an additional email archive containing everything important.

Let the softest parts of your body serve as a safety cushion. ;D

What are you saying? If you are not in America haven't you heard how Trump was deporting many people like very quickly? What part of the world are you from? What law are you reffering to? If the citizenship was required, that shows they are migrants, if they misbehave they will go back to their country.

We don't know what this woman did, it is a shame that we don't, but I am sure that if ICE is involved then she is likely not who we think she is, and even if she has her recovery seed on her it is still risky, if the money inside is a lot the agents might take over the wallet and send her on her way, at least she is leaving the country anyway, before she knows what is happening the deal is been done.

You should take into account that even if something happens to you because you’re under investigation or wanted for terrorism, etc., you need an emergency plan for a serious event. Tell a close family member or friend the procedure to recover funds, have a notary hold your passphrase, maybe use a multisig wallet, or have two hardware wallets: the first, less valuable, used as a decoy with only a small amount, and the second holding the majority of your bitcoins entrusted to a person you trust completely — with the seed phrase written in code and three or more copies placed in different locations that only you or a very small circle can access

This kind of situation can be very disgusting and very challenging and at the same time there are some period in life when things goes against your wish and such situation might be very difficult for you to control.
I have seen people who are one time or the other lost their properties, money or belongings to criminals, fire incident etc and when such a thing occur you need to remain courageous and forge ahead.

Loosing your cryptocurrency wallet is a very sadden experience but how ever people have also lost their fund in one way or the order, but remember you did not loose your life, if you are unable to recover your wallet, you have to start up again to build your self and your wallet in your current location.

In life one can fail in his endeavour several times, and that does not mean you are a failure, it is only when you quit from making effort, that is when you become a failure.

Are you suggesting that the ICE would just arrest someone and deport him/her within 24 hours without giving him/her the opportunity to pack his/her baggage? I don't know how the ICE operates, but this doesn't seem real to me. Those people might be illegal immigrants, but they still have civil rights. Are you suggesting that the ICE breaks the civil rights of all the people, who got deported? Aren't those people supposed to sue the ICE for a compensation? I'm not a lawyer and I don't know each and every case in detail, but suing the ICE should be totally possible.
Losing access to your crypto wallet is the same as losing access to a bank account. Most illegals probably don't have bank accounts, but they have cash in the places where they live(I guess). I really don't know what I would do in such situation.

Well USB is something physical that you might also forget at home while coming out from your home. Remember, it is a scenerio that if you are caught on the way, you will be arrested and deported back home, so you won't have a second chance of visiting your place to pick whatever belonging you have. So the question is, what if you forgot the USB at home and get caught outside there? But with email, I believe you can easily remember your password. Just that you need to secure the email.