New Report Says Voluntary Departure of Illegals Hits Record High

According to new data just released by the Trump administration, immigration cases ending in voluntary departure have hit a record high.

The Vera Institute of Justice report released Friday shows that the number of people in removal proceedings receiving “voluntary departure” court decisions has significantly increased, particularly among those held in federal detention, ABC News reported.

“This is widespread across the United States,” said Jacquelyn Pavilon, one of the report’s authors. “In three-quarters of U.S. states and territories, the number of voluntary departure decisions increased more than fivefold since the end of Biden’s term.”

In immigration court, voluntary departures are formal requests to depart the U.S. that are approved by a judge, provided the requester is legally permitted to leave. This is different from self-deportations arranged through the Department of Homeland Security, in which illegal immigrants inform the agency that they’re leaving the country to avoid potential detention or removal.

“Many of those people may have legal avenues to remain in the United States,” Pavilon told ABC News. “Voluntary departure decisions do not mean that you do not have legal rights to remain. People are under harsh conditions and making very difficult decisions.”

Voluntary departures jumped from about 800 per month at the end of the Biden administration to more than 8,800 by February 2026, according to the report.

“This increase in voluntary departures is not happening instead of removal orders; it’s actually happening alongside removal orders,” Pavilon said. “And so the piece of the pie that’s shrinking is the number of people who are allowed to remain in the United States.”

The Vera Institute of Justice obtained the data through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the immigration courts.

Newly appointed immigration judges under this Trump administration have granted voluntary departure at higher rates than judges who have served on the bench longer, while still granting orders of removal at comparable rates, according to the report.

More than 93% of initially detained cases assigned to new judges resulted in the person being required to leave the U.S.

“[Immigration] judges overall are less likely to encourage people to leave the United States if those people have legal counsel,” Pavilon said. “Amongst the detained folks we looked at, Republican-appointed judges are encouraging people in detained immigration proceedings to leave the U.S. at higher rates than Democratic-appointed judges.”

“The Trump administration has been using and leveraging a wide range of strategies to [successfully] carry out its mass deportation agenda,” she added.