The self-deportation of illegal immigrants has soared as President Trump’s administration works to “return” order on the southern border, according to the Department of Justice.
The data, which was compiled by the Marshall Project and published Tuesday, shows that “voluntary departures” under the Trump administration have reached a seven-year high, with 29,818 applications filed year.
Applications for voluntary departures rose 50% in 2017 and then doubled in 2018.
The Department of Justice has repeatedly hailed voluntary departures as a “return to rule of law.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Brendan Raedy said self-deportation comes with some benefit.
[Related: 145,095 criminal illegal immigrants deported, 1.2% of 11.3 million total in US]
“In addition, voluntary departure generally provides far more time to make necessary arrangements than for those who are ordered removed,” Raedy said.
The Department of Justice issued guidelines for who is allowed to self-deport, including the person must be of “good moral character.”
“A grant of voluntary departure allows removable aliens to leave the U.S. within a prescribed timeframe at their own expense. Voluntary departure also allows removable aliens to avoid some of the consequences of a removal order. For example, someone who voluntarily departs is not automatically barred from legally returning to the U.S. at a later date,” the department’s guidelines state.
In the 2012 presidential election campaign, Mitt Romney said “self-deportation” would be a more effective way of limiting illegal immigration rather than to “round people up.”
The data comes from an analysis of applications from the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review.
