Illegal aliens have chosen to abandon their asylum claims in record numbers since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, according to The Washington Post.
Data from the Vera Institute of Justice shows that “immigration judges issued more than 80,000 ‘voluntary departure’ orders from January 2025 through March of this year.”
From the report: “The number of people receiving a decision of voluntary departure has risen dramatically since the change in presidential administration—particularly among people who were detained. Judges appointed by 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.”
The illegal aliens cannot have a serious criminal record.
A judge hands out those orders when the illegal alien requests to leave on their own instead of a formal deportation order:
The number of people abandoning their immigration cases is at least seven times as high as the number seen in the last 15 months of the Biden administration, when 11,400 took that option. More than 70 percent of those granted a voluntary departure order during President Donald Trump’s second administration were being held in immigration detention when they made the request, a far higher share than those who departed willingly while Joe Biden was in the White House.
The “voluntary departure” could make it easier for the person to return legally.
“These changes come at the same time as the number of people who are detained and facing deportation is increasing and relatively fewer people are being released from detention,” concluded Vera researchers Jacquelyn Pavilon and Neil Agarwal, as cited in WaPo. “Altogether, Vera’s analysis illuminates how voluntary departure is being used in the second Trump administration to require more people to leave the United States.”
The report did not indicate if any of the illegal aliens accepted Trump’s offer to self-deport to receive cash and a free flight home.
“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,” DHS told WaPo. “President Trump and Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe.”
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