As deportation operations have ramped up around the nation, millions of illegal immigrants have gone back to their home countries.
A lot of those have been deported by immigration authorities, but many others have willingly left, on their own accord.
Makes sense, doesn’t it?
Illegals don’t want to be caught by ICE, so they voluntarily leave before getting detained.
President Trump just addressed the self-deportations happening en masse, which usually don’t usually get a lot of attention.
Watch what he had to say here:
Backup here, if needed:
JUST IN – PRESIDENT TRUMP: “The self deportation is something nobody talks about. MILLIONS are self-deporting. They don’t want to be captured.” “We took the worst border in history – in 2 months, we turned it into the STRONGEST border in history!”
It’s WORKING!
pic.twitter.com/lgISE9MVVy — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 15, 2025
As of now, the Trump administration estimates that there have been nearly 2 million self-deportations since President Trump took office.
Grok dove deeper into the numbers:
The Trump administration and DHS have claimed high numbers of self-deportations, primarily based on estimates of declines in the undocumented population from survey data (e.g., Current Population Survey analyzed by groups like the Center for Immigration Studies or Pew Research Center).
- DHS press releases throughout 2025 cited approximately 1.6 million voluntary self-deportations by mid-to-late year (e.g., August–October announcements), contributing to a total of over 2 million “removed or self-deported” since January 20, 2025.
- By December 2025, DHS updated this to around 1.9 million self-deportations, with over 605,000 formal deportations, for a total exceeding 2.5 million departures.
These figures include a mix of:
- Recorded voluntary departures (e.g., via the CBP Home app, which offers incentives like $1,000 and free flights—usage was in the tens of thousands at most, per reports).
- Broader population estimates attributing declines to deterrence from enforcement policies.
Independent analysts and nonpartisan sources (e.g., Migration Policy Institute, Pew, CBS News, Axios) have criticized these claims as unorthodox or inflated, noting:
- Official ICE removals (formal deportations) were estimated at around 340,000 for FY2025.
- True unrecorded self-deportations are hard to measure.
- Population declines could stem from lower survey response rates among immigrants fearing enforcement, reduced new arrivals, or other factors—not necessarily mass voluntary exits.
Imagine that…
Enforcing the law works!
What do you think?
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport.