President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has brought sweeping changes to immigration policy, with immediate effects already rippling through the labor market. Under a revamped “self-deportation” initiative—central to Executive Order 14159, signed on Trump’s first day back in office—nearly one million illegal immigrants have reportedly left the country voluntarily in recent months.
The program, a key part of Trump’s broader strategy to reestablish law and order at the southern border, is now being seen as a quiet but significant victory for both immigration enforcement and American workers who are now back-filling those jobs.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the unauthorized immigrant population grew to over 15 million during former President Biden’s administration—a surge critics attribute to what they describe as a disregard for federal detention and border security laws. In contrast, Trump has reversed many Biden-era policies and equipped the Department of Homeland Security and ICE with a range of aggressive new tools, including expanded expedited removal authority and renewed partnerships with private detention facilities.
While media coverage has largely centered on ICE raids and criminal deportations, one of the most impactful—yet lesser-known—elements of the strategy has been the push to encourage unlawful migrants to voluntarily leave the country.
“While ICE arrests and deportations have grabbed headlines, President Trump is also running a separate but complementary ‘mass deportation’ program — one that encourages aliens here unlawfully to go home voluntarily,” immigration reform advocate Andrew Arthur wrote in a New York Post opinion piece.
“And if reports are correct, that plan is more successful than anyone could have imagined. Based on government data, my organization, the Center for Immigration Studies, has conservatively estimated there are about 15.4 million illegal aliens in the United States, a 50% increase over the four tumultuous years of the Biden administration,” he explained.
The Trump administration’s strategy features a mandatory registration requirement for all non-citizens, a national public awareness campaign promoting voluntary departure, and a $1,000 stipend for individuals who choose to self-deport—an alternative to the estimated $17,000 cost to taxpayers for a forced removal. Additionally, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has rebranded the Biden-era CBP One app as “CBP Home,” enabling migrants to inform officials of their intention to leave the country voluntarily. And they are doing so – quickly.
As reported by The Washington Post, the U.S. economy added 139,000 jobs in May, exceeding economists’ expectations and indicating continued resilience in the labor market, eve
Whether motivated by fear of enforcement, financial incentives, or the hope of returning legally in the future, many illegal immigrants are responding to the new policies. For American workers—particularly in blue-collar industries historically affected by low-wage competition—the effects are already noticeable and widely welcomed.n amid growing caution from businesses. According to the Labor Department’s report released Friday, the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.2 percent, hovering near historic lows.
