Eighty thousand people have decided — entirely on their own, mind you — that maybe it's time to leave the country they entered illegally. DHS data shows that from January 2025 through March of this year, judges issued more than 80,000 voluntary departure orders as the Trump administration's immigration enforcement crackdown makes the prospect of sticking around considerably less appealing. Funny how that works.
Remember when the left told us mass deportation was "impossible"? Remember when every blue-haired pundit on cable news said you "can't just deport 20 million people"? Turns out you don't have to. You just enforce the law and they start packing their own suitcases. Incredible.
To put that 80,000 number in perspective — and we should, because it's a beautiful number — under Joe Biden's last 15 months, there were only 11,400 voluntary departures. That's a sevenfold increase under President Trump. Seven times. The Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos and not exactly a fan of border enforcement, reported on May 8 that over 70% of those granted voluntary departure were already in detention. They saw the writing on the wall and chose the exit door.
Homeland Security Chief Markwayne Mullin laid out the raw numbers on May 5, and they're staggering. "Just yesterday, we arrested over 1,900 individuals," Mullin said. "We have over 60,000 individuals that are currently being detained, going through the process of being deported. Last week, we deported over 2,700" per day.
Let that sink in. Nearly 2,700 deportations a day. That's not a rounding error. That's a stadium emptying every month.
The pro-migration Vera Institute of Justice — not exactly a MAGA outfit — admitted the quiet part out loud, saying "the Trump administration is leveraging a wide range of strategies to carry out its mass deportation agenda." They said it like it was a bad thing. We say it like it's a campaign promise kept.
And the strategy is working on multiple fronts. Asylum approval rates have dropped by 90%. Ninety percent. The days of showing up at the border, saying the magic word "asylum," and getting a court date six years from now are over. ICE is arresting people. Judges are ordering departures. And tens of thousands of people are looking at the new math and deciding they'd rather leave voluntarily than wait for the knock on the door.
This is what deterrence looks like. Not a wall alone — though we love the wall — but actual consequences for breaking the law. When people know that crossing illegally no longer comes with a free work permit, a taxpayer-funded hotel room, and a hearty "good luck at your hearing in 2031," they make different choices.
The Washington Post editorial board tried to spin this back in April, wringing their hands about the "human cost" of enforcement. Spare us. The human cost of not enforcing immigration law was borne by American citizens for decades — depressed wages, overwhelmed schools, fentanyl flooding across an open border.
Eighty thousand voluntary departures. That's a full NFL stadium of people who decided to self-deport rather than face the consequences of an administration that actually means business. And we're only through March.
The left said it couldn't be done. The numbers say otherwise. Again.
