2026年2月12日 / 美国东部时间凌晨5:00 / CBS新闻
随着美国各地移民法庭通往自由的途径日益狭窄，创纪录数量的被拘留者放弃了案件，自愿离开该国。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻对数十年法庭记录的分析发现，去年，在所有被拘留者完成的移民驱逐案件中，28%以自愿离境告终，这一比例高于以往任何一年。
随着特朗普政府的移民打击行动扩大，拘留人数激增，这一数字似乎还在攀升。2025年每个月，被拘留者中自愿离境的比例几乎都在增长，12月达到38%。分析不包括那些未在移民法官面前获得听证的人，例如在快速驱逐程序中的移民。
“对于每一个被拘留的人来说，这种过程让人在情感上耗尽精力，感到疲惫不堪，我们受到的对待方式就是这样，以至于他们最终会说，‘好吧，我只想获得自由，’”维尔玛·帕拉西奥斯（Vilma Palacios）说道。她于12月底在路易斯安那州巴西勒被拘留六个月后，同意返回洪都拉斯。
22岁的帕拉西奥斯自6岁起就在美国生活。去年6月，她从路易斯安那州立大学护理专业毕业后一个月，美国移民海关执法局（ICE）特工在她将车送到当地警察局进行例行检查时逮捕了她。她没有犯罪记录。
帕拉西奥斯说，她和家人2010年抵达边境时被拘留了一个月，但后来获释，并在随后几年提起了庇护申请。法庭记录显示，她的案件在2015年被行政关闭，当时她12岁，这意味着案件被无限期搁置。
美国国土安全部（DHS）发言人在给哥伦比亚广播公司新闻的声明中写道，帕拉西奥斯“自由承认自己非法滞留美国”，“从未寻求或获得任何合法身份”。
帕拉西奥斯反驳称自己从未寻求合法身份的说法，她表示自己当时正在等待工作许可证更新时被逮捕。
从那以后，帕拉西奥斯说她有一名移民律师帮助她处理移民法庭诉讼程序，并认为自己做了所有必要的事情以合法留在美国。她表示，当移民局特工拘留她时，她感到非常震惊。
她说，在随后的六个月拘留期间，她与家人和朋友失去了所有联系，这让她身心俱疲。
“一切都被剥夺了，就像我与所有我爱的人被撕裂开来，周围都是我从未见过的人，而美国移民海关执法局控制着我的每一个行动，这对我来说非常艰难，”她说，“到了最后，我觉得自己别无选择，只能说，好吧，只要把自由还给我。”
帕拉西奥斯说，当其他被拘留者在就医时遇到延误，她试图为他们提供医疗帮助，但拘留中心的工作人员阻止了她。
“许多女性总是来找我，或者向官员抱怨等待时间过长，她们没有得到所需的治疗，生病了却要等待两、三、四个星期，甚至几个月才有人叫她们去看病，”帕拉西奥斯说。
据哥伦比亚广播公司新闻此前报道，1月中旬约有73,000人被美国移民海关执法局拘留，这是国土安全部记录的最高水平。
“拘留中心的条件从未像现在这样糟糕，因为过度拥挤，”纽约法律援助协会的监督律师詹·格兰特（Jen Grant）说。
帕拉西奥斯曾向移民法官申请保释以获释，但她的请求被拒绝。
“他们没有考虑我在美国建立的根基，我已经安排好的工作、我的职业、我为自己建立的生活，他们都从未考虑过，”帕拉西奥斯说。
并非只有她一人在案件审理期间难以获释。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻分析发现，去年，30%的保释裁决对被拘留者有利，而2024年这一比例为59%。
在特朗普政府任内，国土安全部已将非法进入美国的所有人置于强制拘留之下，而不仅仅是在边境附近被逮捕的人，并且剥夺了法官批准保释的权力。12月，加利福尼亚州一名地区法官裁定国土安全部广泛使用强制拘留是非法的，但根据美国移民律师协会获得的一份备忘录，首席移民法官发布了指导意见，告知移民法官该裁决无约束力。
格兰特说，由于特朗普政府解雇了数十名法官，法官们可能也害怕做出与政府驱逐议程不一致的裁决。
负责监督美国移民法庭的移民审查执行办公室发言人在声明中写道：“移民法官是独立的裁决者，根据美国移民法、法规和先例决定他们面前的所有事项，包括自愿离境请求，均采用个案处理原则。”
国土安全部未就自愿离境增加以及强制拘留的使用增加等问题作出回应。
许多被拘留者正在联邦法院提起人身保护令申请以寻求释放，这会迫使法官评估拘留的合法性。在某些情况下，这会将举证责任转移给政府，以证明被拘留者有逃跑风险。但格兰特表示，并非所有人都有资源提起人身保护令申请，而且并非所有申请都能成功。
一位要求哥伦比亚广播公司新闻仅用首字母U.G.指代的移民表示，由于她仍在寻求合法途径对驱逐令提出上诉，当法官最终在被拘留13个月后下令将她驱逐出境时，她松了一口气。尽管她没有要求自愿离境，但有一段时间她试图说服她的法律团队允许她被驱逐。
“我无法想象继续坐在这里，”她说，“我每天坐在这里，都是我自己的选择。我可以签署文件，三天内被移除。”
她说，即使她的诉求得到批准，她相信国土安全部会提出上诉，让她被拘留更长时间，或者试图将她送往其原籍墨西哥以外的国家。
“他们认为自己赢得官司的可能性比以前低得多，”克里斯托弗·金尼森（Christopher Kinnison）律师说，他在路易斯安那州从事移民法律工作已有15年。
根据交易记录获取信息中心（TRAC）分析的移民法庭数据，许多在驱逐程序中的人正在寻求庇护，而庇护批准率已大幅下降。2022年至2024年期间，每月超过一半的庇护申请获得批准，但到2025年12月，这一比例降至29%。
近几个月来，国土安全部还通过要求法官将庇护申请者送往第三国，缩短了数千起庇护案件的审理时间。
“人们已经没有希望了，”格兰特说，“这是因为看到其他在法庭上抗争的人，他们的案件被驳回，保释听证会……然后他们还是被驳回。”
在法官批准帕拉西奥斯的自愿离境请求后，她被戴上手铐和额外的金属镣铐从美国飞往洪都拉斯。
“我觉得这种方式非常不人道，我们被束缚着，就像被劫持一样被送回我们的国家，”她说，“这似乎不是自愿离境，而更像是我们仍被当作罪犯对待，像人质一样被控制。”
如今身处一个她几乎记不清的国家，帕拉西奥斯正开始重建自己的生活，甚至在新社区的一个当地玩具捐赠活动中做志愿者。
帕拉西奥斯被送回洪都拉斯后没有对案件提出上诉，但她告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，她从未放弃有一天能重返美国的希望。
“我的目标和梦想仍然是在美国成为一名护士，”帕拉西奥斯说，“如果我在这里能获得机会，积累经验，同时能够继续产生影响……帮助那些有需要的人，我总是说，为什么不呢？”
Voluntary departures hit record high as detained immigrants lose hope of getting released or winning in court
February 12, 2026 / 5:00 AM EST / CBS News
As pathways to freedom have narrowed in immigration courts across the United States, a record number of detainees are giving up their cases and voluntarily leaving the country.
Last year, 28% of completed immigration removal cases among those in detention ended in voluntary departure, a higher share than in any year prior, a CBS News analysis of decades of court records found.
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.
Palacios, 22, had been in the U.S. since she was 6 years old. Last June, a month after she graduated from nursing school at Louisiana State University, ICE agents arrested her at a local police station after she brought in a car for a routine inspection. She has no criminal record.
Palacios said she and her family were apprehended and detained for a month at the border when they arrived in 2010 but were released and pursued an asylum case in the years following. Court records show her case was administratively closed in 2015, when she was 12 years old, meaning it was taken off the docket indefinitely.
In a statement to CBS News, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson wrote that Palacios “freely admitted to being in the U.S. illegally” and “never sought or gained any legal status.”
Palacios pushed back on claims that she never sought legal status, saying she had been awaiting a work permit renewal when she was arrested.
Since then, Palacios says she had an immigration attorney helping her navigate the immigration court proceeding process and thought she was doing everything necessary to remain in the U.S. lawfully. She says she was shocked when immigration agents detained her.
She said her subsequent six-month stay in detention — during which she had no contact with family or friends — was emotionally exhausting.
“Everything was taken from me, like being ripped apart from every person that I loved, and being surrounded with people that I had never met in my life, and [ICE] having control over every movement that I made, was just something very difficult to me,” she said. “It got to the point where I didn’t see that I had no other option but just to say, OK, just please give me my freedom back.”
Palacios said she tried to offer medical care to fellow detainees in need when they faced delays in accessing doctors and nurses, but detention facility staff told her not to.
“Many women would always come up to me, or come up to the officers, and complain about the waiting time, that they weren’t receiving the treatment that they needed, that they were sick, and still had to wait two, three, four weeks, even months after, to be called,” Palacios said.
About 73,000 people were being held in ICE detention in mid-January, the highest level ever recorded by DHS, CBS News previously reported.
“The conditions in the detention centers have never ever been worse because they’re so overcrowded,” said Jen Grant, a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society in New York.
Palacios asked an immigration judge for a bond for her release from detention, but her request was denied.
“They weren’t looking at the roots that I created in the United States,” Palacios said. “The job that I had lined up, the career, the life that I had built for myself, they never took nothing into consideration.”
She’s not the only one who struggled to get out of detention while her case was pending. Last year, 30% of rulings on bond were favorable to detainees, down from 59% in 2024, the CBS News analysis found.
Under the Trump administration, DHS has moved to subject anyone who entered the U.S. illegally to mandatory detention, rather than only those apprehended near the border, removing judges’ authority to grant bond. In December, a California district judge ruled that DHS’s sweeping use of mandatory detention is unlawful, but the chief immigration judge issued guidance telling immigration judges the ruling was not binding, according to a memo obtained by the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Judges may also be afraid to rule out of step with the administration’s deportation agenda, Grant said, as the Trump administration has fired dozens of judges.
A spokesperson for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the nation’s immigration courts, wrote in a statement that “immigration judges are independent adjudicators and decide all matters before them, including requests for voluntary departure, on a case-by-case basis, according to U.S. immigration law, regulations, and precedent decisions.”
DHS did not respond to inquiries about the increase in voluntary departures and use of mandatory detention.
Many detainees are seeking release by filing habeas corpus petitions in federal court, which compel a judge to evaluate the legality of their detention. In some cases, that shifts the burden of proof onto the government to show that a detainee is a flight risk. But not everyone has the resources to file a habeas corpus petition, Grant said, and not all petitions are successful.
One immigrant who asked that CBS News identify her only by her initials, U.G., as she is still seeking legal pathways to appeal her deportation, was relieved when a judge finally ordered for her deportation after 13 months in detention. Although she didn’t ask for voluntary departure, at one point she tried to convince her legal team to ask for her removal.
“I couldn’t fathom just continuing to sit there,” she said. “Every day that I sit here, I’m choosing to sit here. I can sign and have them remove me in three days.”
Even if she had been granted her claim for relief, she believed DHS would appeal it, leaving her in detention for even longer, or try to send her to a country other than her native Mexico, she said.
“They believe that the likelihood of them winning their case is so much lower than it ever used to be,” attorney Christopher Kinnison said of some of his clients. He has been working as an immigration lawyer in Louisiana for 15 years.
Many of the people in removal proceedings are seeking asylum, and asylum grant rates have plummeted, according to immigration court data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. More than half of asylum requests were granted each month from 2022 to 2024, but 29% were granted by December 2025.
In recent months, DHS has also moved to cut thousands of asylum cases short by asking judges to send asylum seekers to third countries.
“People have no hope,” Grant said. “It’s from seeing other people in court who fight their cases, who get their cases denied, who have bond hearings … and then they get denied.”
After a judge granted Palacios’ request for voluntary departure, she was flown to Honduras in handcuffs, with additional metal chains around her waist and feet.
“It’s something that I feel like it’s very inhumane, the way that we are shackled and brought to our country,” she said. “It doesn’t seem like it’s a voluntary departure. It seemed that you’re still being held as a criminal, kind of like a hostage.”
Now in a country that she can hardly remember, Palacios is beginning to rebuild her life, even volunteering at a local toy drive in her new community.
Pacios did not appeal her case after being sent back to Honduras, but she tells CBS News she hasn’t given up hope of returning to the U.S. one day.
“My goal and dream is still to be a nurse in the United States,” Palacios said. “If I receive an opportunity here, to be able to gain experience, in the meantime, to be able to continue making an impact… to be able to help those in need, I always say, why not?”
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