Migrants quitting asylum claims and volunteering to leave the US have increased at least seven-fold under President Trump — with the administration touting the increase as a success for the rule of law, but critics arguing it’s a sign detention practices have gotten out of hand.
More than 80,000 “voluntary departure” orders were issued by US immigration judges between Jan. 2025 and March 2026 — a more than 600% increase from the 11,400 issued during the last 15 months of former President Joe Biden’s term, according to numbers from the Vera Institute of Justice reviewed by the Washington Post.
And it seems to be on the rise — 6,370 took a voluntary departure order in July, while more than 9,000 did in March, the data shows.
By comparison, about 750 per month were voluntarily departing in the second half of Biden’s presidency.
It remains unclear how many of those numbers fall under the “self deportation” option President Trump has been pushing, which allows migrants to turn themselves in via a Department of Homeland Security app in return for a cash stipend and free flight home.
Voluntary departures are orders granted by a judge to immigrants who have decided not to pursue their asylum case and have historically been an option for people who aren’t expected to be granted asylum.
People who choose voluntary departure are not issued formal deportation orders, which makes it much easier to return to the US and try their hand at the immigration system at a later date.
Immigrants can’t have a serious criminal record to qualify, and generally must leave the country at their own expense.
However, over 70% of the 80,000 who have taken the option under Trump have done so from within detention facilities, prompting advocates to argue that migrants are taking the option simply to stay out of the holding facilities.
“People are taking it because they’re trying to get out of detention more quickly, because they don’t see any possible avenues for relief for themselves,” Shayna Kessler, a Vera Institute director, told the Washington Post.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has insisted the voluntary departure stats prove that its crackdown on illegal immigration — a key promise the president made on the campaign trail — is working.
“Biden and [then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas] recklessly unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into American communities – and they abused many loopholes to do so,” a DHS spokesperson told the Washington Post in a statement.
“President Trump and Secretary Mullin are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe.”
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