Immigrants in removal proceedings who know their hearings are going to end badly may be able to salvage their situation by requesting voluntary departure.
They would still have to leave the U.S., but they wouldn’t be deported. It’s an important distinction: Deportation would bar them from entering the U.S. lawfully for between five and 20 years. Voluntary departure, which carries no such sanction, might be a benefit not only to the immigrant, but also to President Trump.
Trump’s enforcement objective is to return “millions and millions of criminals back to the places from which they came.” An immigration court backlog crisis makes it impossible to put that many immigrants through removal proceedings. The backlog has reached more than 4 million cases.
