Immigration Judges Issue Over 80,000 Voluntary Departure Orders Since Trump Took Office

Immigration judges have issued more than 80,000 voluntary departure orders since President Trump returned to the White House, according to court data compiled by the Vera Institute of Justice and reviewed by the Washington Post. The total marks a more than sevenfold increase over the roughly 11,400 such orders issued during the final 15 months of the Biden administration.

Voluntary departure is a legal mechanism that permits immigrants to leave the United States without receiving a formal deportation order. Unlike forced removal, the option does not permanently bar reentry, which leaves open the possibility of a future legal return.

Immigrants must generally leave at their own expense and cannot have a serious criminal record to qualify. Monthly voluntary departures rose from roughly 750 during the latter half of the Biden administration to more than 6,000 following stepped-up enforcement raids in July 2025.

The monthly total reached more than 9,000 in March 2026 alone. More than 70 percent of the immigrants who accepted voluntary departure orders since President Trump returned to the White House did so from within detention facilities. Officials have expanded ICE detention capacity from roughly 40,000 beds in January 2025 to over 70,000 by January 2026, with a daily peak of 73,400 detainees.

The Department of Homeland Security attributed the increase to a July 2025 policy shift under which immigrants who entered the country illegally would generally no longer qualify for bond hearings while fighting their cases. That change reduced detainees' ability to seek release during proceedings and increased pressure to accept voluntary departure.