Record number of immigration cases now ending in voluntary departure, report says
The number of migrants receiving "voluntary departure" decisions is way up.
Immigrants are giving up their claims in immigration court and opting to voluntarily leave the U.S. in exponentially higher numbers under the current Trump administration's immigration crackdown than at any time previously, according to a new report based on federal data.
The report by the Vera Institute of Justice shows that the number of people in removal proceedings receiving "voluntary departure" decisions has risen dramatically -- particularly among those held in federal detention.
"This is widespread across the United States," said Jacquelyn Pavilon, one of the authors of the report. "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."
Voluntary departures in immigration court -- in which a formal request to depart the country is approved by a judge, assuming the requester is legally permitted to leave -- is different from self-deportations arranged through the Department of Homeland Security, in which migrants inform DHS they're leaving the country in order to avoid potential detention or removal.
The report's co-author told ABC News that while the number of voluntary departures is rising, it does not necessarily mean people want to leave the U.S.
"Many of those people may have legal avenues to remain in the United States," Pavilon said. "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."
According to the report, voluntary departures surged from roughly 800 per month at the end of the Biden administration to more than 8,800 by February 2026.
"This increase in voluntary departures is not happening instead of removal orders; it's actually happening alongside removal orders," Pavilon told ABC News. "And so the piece of the pie that's shrinking is the number of people who are allowed to remain in the United States."
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
The group obtained the data via a Freedom of Information Act request from the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the federal agency that oversees the nation's immigration courts.
According to the report, newly appointed immigration judges under the second Trump administration have granted voluntary departure at higher rates than judges with more experience -- while still granting orders of removal at comparable rates.
And more than 93% of initially detained cases assigned to these new judges received an outcome requiring the person 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 told ABC News. "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 report's author says the data shows how the administration is scaling up departures by leveraging the court system to bypass lengthier legal battles.
"The Trump administration has been using and leveraging a wide range of strategies to carry out its mass deportation agenda," Pavilon said.
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