WASHINGTON — A report by The Washington Post highlights a sharp increase in immigrants choosing to leave the United States voluntarily because of fears surrounding Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, prolonged confinement and declining chances of receiving asylum protections.
According to The Washington Post, “Immigrants are giving up their claims for humanitarian protection and opting to depart the United States in exponentially higher numbers under the Trump administration.” The newspaper reported that immigration judges issued “more than 80,000 ‘voluntary departure’ orders from January 2025 through March of this year.”
These orders are granted only to individuals who request to leave voluntarily while also “giving up the opportunity to seek a new life in the U.S.,” The Washington Post reported. However, those individuals are not issued formal deportation orders, which “could make it easier for them to return legally in the future,” according to the newspaper.
The number of individuals abandoning their immigration cases is reportedly seven times higher than during the final 15 months of the Biden administration, when approximately 11,400 voluntary departures were recorded, according to The Washington Post. The increase may also be connected to the fact that more than 70% of those abandoning their cases were being held in immigration detention facilities.
“Immigration attorneys say the spike reflects the mounting strain on people who are facing long stints in detention as they await a hearing in immigration court, where it has become increasingly difficult to win asylum,” The Washington Post reported. The increase coincides with expanded detention and deportation efforts and the fact that “relatively fewer people are being released from detention,” according to Vera Institute of Justice researchers Jacquelyn Pavilon and Neil Agarwal.
People seeking voluntary departure must meet specific qualifications. According to The Post, applicants must not have a “serious criminal record and must demonstrate good moral character.” They also are required to leave at their own expense within a time frame set by an immigration judge.
The Washington Post reported that the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment and instead “repeated its unsubstantiated claim that millions have ‘self-deported’ since Inauguration Day, because illegal aliens know President Trump is enforcing our immigration laws.’” The agency also claimed it was seeking to “deport those who arrived illegally under Biden.”
According to The Post, the final months of the Biden administration saw an average of approximately 750 voluntary departure orders per month. After Trump took office, those numbers increased as the White House “dispatched armed, masked immigration officers into cities to arrest undocumented immigrants who had been off-limits under the Biden administration because they were not serious criminals.”
In July 2025, following immigration raids in Los Angeles, the number of immigrants granted voluntary departure rose sharply, reaching 6,370, according to The Washington Post. The newspaper also reported that Todd M. Lyons of ICE “issued a memo declaring that immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally would no longer be eligible for a bond hearing as they fight deportation proceedings in court.” As a result, individuals held in custody were required to remain detained throughout their removal proceedings.
The Post reported that voluntary departures have “especially skyrocketed this year,” noting that more than 9,000 people were granted permission to leave in March alone. “Attorneys say many are choosing to leave because they are frightened by the possibility of being stuck in detention indefinitely,” the newspaper reported.
Shayna Kessler, director of the Advancing Universal Representation initiative at the Vera Institute of Justice, said, “It really appears as though it’s a component of this mass deportation agenda where people are being encouraged to depart even when they have potentially a lawful right to stay.”
Ariel Ruiz Soto, senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, echoed those concerns, stating that “It’s pretty clear that the trend has increased, that more people in detention are seeking voluntary departure as an alternative to staying in detention.”
The Post described one case involving “a 33-year-old from the Middle East” who was detained by ICE in December after a scheduled check-in with immigration officials. According to his brother, the man began suffering panic attacks, chest pains and repeatedly struck his head against a door while held in solitary confinement. The newspaper reported that he had no criminal record.
While in ICE detention, the man reportedly was informed that he could be deported to Uganda. Instead, he chose to return to his home country despite being “a Christian traumatized by persecution in his mostly Muslim native country, having been beaten, threatened and had his car set on fire.”
The Washington Post quoted the man’s brother as saying in an interview, “Look, I am dying here anyway. I’d rather die in my country instead of going to a place where I’m going to die. I cannot live without freedom.”
According to The Post, the Trump administration “fired more than 100 immigration judges without explanation and hired new ones with little experience who were working under the threat of dismissal.” The newspaper reported that the changes contributed to increased denials of asylum and humanitarian protections, as well as to a daily detention population of approximately 70,000 immigrants by January.
Between September and February, Texas and Louisiana recorded the highest numbers of voluntary departures, according to The Washington Post. The newspaper reported 12,400 departures in Texas and 5,400 in Louisiana, tying those figures to the experience of Ukrainian artist Roman Husar, who came to the United States in 2023 with his wife and son.
The Post reported that Husar sought voluntary departure after “watching hundreds of detainees head to immigration court only to return with a deportation order.” Husar stated, “Nobody gets asylum here in Texas. Nobody… People, they are denied, denied, denied.”
Husar arrived in the United States through a Biden administration program allowing Ukrainians with U.S. sponsors to flee Russia’s invasion. However, according to The Post, after Trump took office, “His fortunes had shifted dramatically.” The Trump administration suspended the program under which Husar entered the country, leaving him unprocessed despite the fact that he “had settled into life in Georgia, paying taxes and cheering for the Atlanta Hawks.”
The Washington Post reported that Husar attended Burning Man and later was arrested in Texas while driving back for possessing recreational marijuana, which is illegal in Texas. The newspaper stated that he was subsequently transferred into ICE detention, where officials attempted to “deport him directly to the war zone he had fled.” Despite presenting letters from relatives and church pastors, Husar was denied bond.
“I was expecting real justice,” Husar said in an interview. “I was really surprised.” Homeland Security officials argued that Husar “broke the law” while his immigration application was still pending. The Washington Post reported that officials “did not explain why they tried to deport him to a nation at war.”
Citing his religion and his status as a conscientious objector, Husar said that deportation to Ukraine could lead to imprisonment or death in war. The Washington Post reported that the immigration judge assigned to his case was among the newly-hired judges with no prior experience.
Husar’s attorney, Jennifer Peyton, was “one of the immigration judges Trump officials had fired without explanation,” according to The Post. She reportedly said Husar had a strong case but “he was unlikely to win and could face deportation to Ukraine.” Husar withdrew his asylum application and requested removal to Turkey or Poland instead of Ukraine.
In its concluding remarks, The Washington Post quoted Peyton as saying that voluntary departure gave Husar the possibility of one day returning to the United States “when things are different in his country, and in our country, perhaps.” However, she argued that the decision was not truly voluntary. “This type of voluntary departure is not voluntary,” she said. “It’s coerced.”
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“However, those individuals are not issued formal deportation orders, which “could make it easier for them to return legally in the future,” according to the newspaper.”
Sounds like a win-win.
Yes Ron, they can attempt to return “legally”.
What a concept.