What Even CBS Just Admitted About Trump’s Latest Impact

The following is an edited transcript excerpt from The Michael Knowles Show.

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There is some good news on immigration.

CBS News published a new report on the rise of self-deportations.

As you know, CBS has made a move closer to the center. Historically, CBS has been a pretty left-wing news source that is until the hiring of Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief. Bari is more center-Left. She’s not center-Right and she’s not a conservative in any way. But she is far more reasonable than her predecessors.

Well, CBS has a story on a record number of illegal-alien detainees giving up their cases and voluntarily leaving the country, and that figure only appears to be climbing.

CBS NEWS: “A record number of detainees are giving up their cases and voluntarily leaving the country… That figure only appears to be climbing.” 👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/zv4OVq6RXP

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 12, 2026

Credit: @RapidResponse47/X.com

Here we have the percentage of detained cases that end in voluntary removal — illegal immigrants who receive due process and then say, you know what, whatever, I give up, I’m going back to Venezuela.

As you can see from the chart, it started in 1985 with around 6 or 7%. Then, by the end of the Reagan era, it jumped to 19%.

But then, after Reagan amnesty, it all goes way, way down. By the ’90s you’re looking at 3%, 2%, and it kind of hovers around there for a little while. We see more activity after Donald Trump’s first term, getting up to 21%. Then it starts to go back down as we have trouble enforcing the border. And then, when Trump gets reelected in 2024, it spikes again to 28%.

So last year president Trump formally removed something like 525,000 illegal aliens, which are much better numbers certainly than Joe Biden or even Barack Obama. If you will recall, liberals called Obama the “deporter-in-chief,” but that wasn’t entirely true because Obama was counting the illegals he turned away at the border, so he artificially inflated his numbers. In any case, 525,000 is a good start, however, we have something like 20 million illegals in the country.

The real story, though, is the number of self-deportations, a lot of people choosing to just leave the country.

Some people on the Right were skeptical of this. They didn’t totally believe it. But we’re seeing this verified in labor numbers. We’re seeing it come up in reports from think tanks. We’re now seeing this reported by CBS News: 28% of these detainees are just choosing to remove themselves. Again, those numbers are not included in the formal deportation totals, but that’s a pretty good number.

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So why is this happening? 

Other people on the Right have criticized the White House for putting on a “show” of deportations but not really carrying them out.

So you put on the show — the “cruelty is the point” of these really cool edits that come out from the DHS and ICE social media accounts. Videos of them taking illegals to the ground and cuffing them up. Like the big show of force we see in Minneapolis, which the Left tried to fight Trump on. Ultimately, though, I think it was either a draw or Trump won because he got the locals to start handing over the criminals.

In any case, many people on the Right say, I don’t want the show, I want the deportations.

We all want more deportations. But the show is important.

Look at the wonderful leader of El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele. We send a lot of illegal aliens to El Salvador. When Bukele started rounding up the criminals in his country — face-tattooed gangsters, in some cases Satan-worshiping gangsters — when he started doing that, he didn’t just kind of do it quietly. He made these great videos absolutely humiliating these people. He even made videos of destroying the graves of their members and family members, going in with sledgehammers and smashing their gravestones and treating these people like cockroaches and sending a message.

And the message was heard because El Salvador went from being the most dangerous country in the Western Hemisphere to one of the safest. Very impressive.

The flamboyance was the point.

Sometimes the libs say the cruelty is the point, as if Republicans are just sadists or something. No, cruelty is not the point. We don’t want to be cruel. We don’t want to be unjust. But the flamboyance is the point. The showmanship is the point. It serves a practical, strategic purpose.

When you have videos of ICE agents showing up and getting a little rough with people — totally within the confines of the law, but a little rough — that sends a message. When you show leftists trying to attack ICE by driving their cars into agents — and the agents finally protecting themselves, following the law and shooting back — that sends a message. And the law is a real teacher.

So then the question becomes: Well, is the flamboyance really paying off, or is it just a way to mollify conservatives who aren’t getting enough deportations?

The numbers are pretty clear here and they are resulting in self-deportations, in people voluntarily leaving.