The US-Mexico border witnessed an unprecedented plunge in unauthorized crossings in the fiscal year 2025, with the annual count plummeting to the lowest since the early 1970s. The sharp decline coincided with the aggressive clampdown on illegal immigration by the Trump administration, as suggested by internal federal statistics obtained by CBS News.
The US Border Patrol agents have apprehended nearly 238,000 migrants attempting to illegally cross the southern border in the fiscal year that began in October of 2024 and ended on September 30th, 2025. The preliminary data, sourced from the Department of Homeland Security, and not previously reported, paints a stark contrast to the numbers witnessed in the yesteryears.
In comparison, the annual tally of apprehensions made by the Border Patrol was the lowest since the fiscal year 1970, when the agency reported approximately 202,000 apprehensions along the US-Mexico border, as indicated by historical figures.
The statistics also highlight a seismic shift from the record-breaking levels of Border Patrol apprehensions noted during the Biden administration, which faced an unparalleled humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border. In the fiscal year 2022, the Border Patrol documented a staggering 2.2 million apprehensions at the border – a record in itself, and nearly 10 times the levels recorded in 2025.
Moreover, over 60% of the apprehensions made by Border Patrol in the fiscal year 2025 along the US-Mexico border were documented in the last full three months of the Biden administration, as shown by the preliminary data. It’s important to note that the government’s fiscal years start in October and end in September, with some of them encompassing different administrations.
During President Trump’s first full eight months in office, Border Patrol agents assigned to the southern border recorded fewer than 9,000 apprehensions each month. This number starkly contrasts with the agency’s activities under former President Joe Biden, when the agency recorded similar numbers in 24-hour periods on certain days.
The internal DHS figures reveal that Border Patrol made nearly 8,400 apprehensions at the US-Mexico border in September, marking a rise from 6,300 in August and 4,600 in July, which was a monthly record low. It’s worth noting that Border Patrol apprehensions represent the number of times agents intercept and process migrants entering the country illegally between official ports of entry. Some migrants can be counted multiple times if they attempt to enter the U.S. more than once after being turned back to Mexico.
In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “President Trump has overwhelmingly delivered on his promise to secure our Southern Border.” She added, “As a result, Americans are safer — unvetted criminal illegal aliens and dangerous drugs are no longer pouring over our border unchecked. And for all the Democrats who claimed it was impossible to secure the border or that they needed new policy, turns out all we needed was a new President.”
Ariel Ruiz Soto, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, noted that illegal border crossings began to fall sharply in the summer of 2024, after the Biden administration enacted strict limits on asylum. However, he said that the Trump administration had established “a new normal” for migration flows in just a few months.
Ruiz Soto suggested that the stringent policies of the Trump administration, both at the border and inside the U.S., “have had a significant effect on people being deterred from coming illegally to the United States.”
Soon after Mr. Trump took office for a second time, his administration moved swiftly to seal and militarize the southern border. They shut down the American asylum system using emergency powers, dispatched thousands of soldiers to repel illegal crossings, and halted Biden-era programs that allowed some migrants to enter the U.S. legally.
While parts of the asylum ban have been curtailed and declared illegal by courts, the Trump administration has virtually ended the practice of releasing migrants who cross into the U.S. illegally, opting instead to deport them quickly or hold them in detention while their cases are reviewed.
Beyond the border, the Trump administration has staged highly publicized operations targeting those living in the U.S. illegally. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents have been dispatched across the country, leading to a deportation campaign of unprecedented proportions.
These actions have resulted in significant controversies. The administration’s border policies have been denounced as inhumane, draconian, and illegal by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, which has challenged them in federal court. The grounds for these challenges argue that the policies are at odds with U.S. and international asylum law as well as the Constitution.
The federal immigration raids beyond the border have also triggered significant backlash, particularly in major American cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, where large-scale protests have erupted. National and local Democrats have decried the raids as indiscriminate and overly harsh, accusing the Trump administration of not solely focusing on deporting violent offenders.
Citing confrontations and instances of violence, Mr. Trump in recent days has ordered National Guard troops to deploy to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, to protect immigration agents and facilities there. However, a federal judge has so far blocked the plan to send National Guard units to Portland.
Amid the national debate over immigration enforcement, those living along the southern border say there’s no denying the reality on the ground has changed markedly.
John Martin, who runs a network of shelters in the Texas border city of El Paso, recounted how his organization housed hundreds of migrants during spikes in illegal crossings during the Biden administration. However, on Monday, he said his organization was not housing a single migrant, stating he’s received “little to no” new arrivals who are not local homeless residents in recent months. He attributed this change to Mr. Trump’s crackdown.
“If the goal is to decrease the number of individuals, I would say that appears to have been successful, without getting into the politics about whether or not I like it or dislike it,” Martin said. “We’re just simply not seeing the people.”
