INCENTIVES MATTER: Voluntary departures hit record high as detained immigrants lose hope of getting released or winning in court.

That figure only appears to be climbing as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown widens and detention populations swell. The percentage of voluntary departures among those detained grew nearly every month of 2025, reaching 38% in December. The analysis does not include those who were not given a hearing before an immigration judge, such as immigrants in expedited removal proceedings.

“It’s set up for every individual who is detained to get to the point where they’re just emotionally drained and exhausted through it all of the way that we’re being treated, to just say, ‘OK, all I want is my freedom,'” said Vilma Palacios, who agreed to return to Honduras in late December after being detained for six months in Basile, Louisiana.

This is a CBS News report, so they pretty much gloss over the fact that that’s how things are supposed to go for anyone who enters the country illegally.

I’d also add that Mitt Romney — hardly anybody’s idea of a conservative, “severe” or otherwise — got unfairly raked over the coals during the 2012 election for suggesting self-deportation as a partial solution to illegal immigration.

But it’s working now.