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Voluntary departures spike as immigrants face squalid detention, pressure to leave

Voluntary departures reached 89,494 cases as of May 1 under the Trump administration, with monthly rates surging to more than 9,000 compared to around 3,000 under previous administrations, according to Stateline analysis of Deportation Data Project records.
The Laken Riley Act, signed into law last year, extended mandatory detention to immigrants arrested on suspicion of minor crimes including shoplifting, while the policy subjects those who crossed the border illegally to indefinite incarceration without bond supporting Homeland Security's 1 million annual deportation target.
On May 21, Trump-appointed judge Leila McNeill Mullican suggested voluntary departure to a Colombian family in Newark after denying their asylum claim, reflecting a pattern where Republican-appointed judges propose departure to unrepresented immigrants, according to Vera Institute research.
An American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit in Illinois accused immigration authorities of coercing and threatening detainees to sign voluntary departure agreements while held in squalid conditions, while U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai noted that many "succumb to the threat of lengthy detention."
Three federal appeals courts have blocked the mandatory detention requirement while two have upheld it, setting up Supreme Court review of the policy's constitutionality as Census Bureau data showed the noncitizen population declined 2.3 million between January 2025 and April 2026.

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