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Voluntary departures of immigrants in the United States reached a record high of over 80,000 orders issued by immigration judges between January 2025 and March 2026, during the first year of the second term of President Donald Trump.
According to data from the Vera Institute of Justice shared with The Washington Post, this figure represents at least seven times more than the approximately 11,400 orders recorded in the 15 months preceding Trump's arrival at the White House.
The monthly rate of these departures increased from about 750 orders during the second half of the Biden administration to more than 6,000 per month following the immigration control raids initiated by Trump.
"Voluntary departure" is a legal mechanism that allows immigrants to leave the United States without a formal deportation order, which theoretically facilitates a possible legal return in the future, but requires waiving any pending claims, including asylum applications.
More than 70% of these orders under Trump were granted to immigrants who were in active detention, a percentage significantly higher than under the Biden administration, when most who pursued this path were not in custody.
Ariel Ruiz Soto, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, explained it clearly: "It is quite clear that the trend has increased, that more people in detention are seeking voluntary release as an alternative to remaining detained."
In New York, 22% of those arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Trump's second term chose voluntary departure, compared to less than 1% in the previous period.
The states with the highest concentration of cases are Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, and California.
The conditions in detention centers are a determining factor in this decision. ICE's detention capacity increased from about 40,000 beds in January 2025 to over 70,000 in January 2026, reaching a daily peak of 73,400 detainees, a historic record.
At the same time, deaths in ICE custody reached their highest level in 20 years, with at least 47 fatalities since the beginning of Trump's second term, according to a study published in the medical journal JAMA in April 2026.
This phenomenon is part of a migration policy that combines stricter internal control with incentives for self-deportation. The "Return Home Project," managed through the CBP Home application, offers free flights and up to $2,600 per person, in addition to the cancellation of civil fines.
The financial incentive started at $1,000 when Trump announced the plan in May 2025, temporarily increased to $3,000 as a "Christmas stipend" in December of that year, and has been set at $2,600 since January 2026.
The Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, stated in August 2025 that "in less than 200 days, 1.6 million illegal immigrants have left the United States," a figure that includes both voluntary departures and formal deportations.
The impact of these policies is especially notable in the Cuban community. ICE increased the detentions of Cuban migrants by 463% between October 2024 and January 2026, while approvals for permanent residency for Cubans fell by 99.8% during the same period.
More than 4,883 Cubans have been deported since January 2025, including at least four direct flights to Havana in 2026 with a total of 530 repatriated by May.
According to the analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies, the total population of foreign-born individuals in the U.S. fell by 2.2 million between January and July 2025, the largest recorded decline in a six-month period since systematic data collection began in 1994.
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