Illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal 2025 fell to their lowest annual level since the early 1970s amid the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration, according to internal federal statistics obtained by CBS News.
U.S. Border Patrol agents recorded nearly 238,000 apprehensions of migrants crossing the southern border illegally in fiscal year 2025, which began in October last year and ended Sept. 30, according to preliminary Department of Homeland Security data, which has not been previously released.
This is the lowest annual figure recorded by the Border Patrol since fiscal year 1970, when the agency reported about 202,000 apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to historical figures.
It also represents a seismic shift from record levels of Border Patrol arrests recorded during the Biden administration, which faced an unprecedented humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. During the exercise 2022the Border Patrol made 2.2 million arrests there – a record and nearly 10 times the levels recorded in 2025.
More than 60% of Border Patrol apprehensions made in fiscal year 2025 along the U.S.-Mexico border were recorded in the last three full months of the Biden administration, according to preliminary data. Government fiscal years begin in October and end in September, and some of them span different jurisdictions.
During the first full eight months of President Trump’s term, Border Patrol agents assigned to the southern border recorded fewer than 9,000 arrests each month — a number the agency recorded in 24-hour periods on some days under former President Joe Biden.
Internal DHS figures show the Border Patrol made nearly 8,400 apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border in September, an increase from 6,300 in August and 4,600 in July, a monthly record.
Border Patrol arrests indicate the number of times agents intercepted and processed migrants entering the country between official ports of entry, which is illegal. Some migrants may be counted multiple times if they attempt to enter the United States more than once after being turned back to Mexico.
In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “President Trump has largely delivered on his promise to secure our southern border.”
“As a result, Americans are safer: illegal aliens and uncontrolled dangerous drugs no longer cross our border unchecked,” Jackson added. “And for all the Democrats who said it was impossible to secure the border or that they needed new policy, it turns out all we needed was a new president.”
“A new normal”
Ariel Ruiz Soto, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, noted that illegal border crossings began to decline sharply in the summer of 2024, after the Biden administration imposed strict limits on asylum. But he said the Trump administration had established “a new normal” for migration flows in just a few months.
Ruiz Soto said the Trump administration’s tough policies — at the border and inside the United States — “have had a significant effect on deterring people from coming to the United States illegally.”
Soon after Mr. Trump took office for the second time, his administration decided to seal and militarize the southern border, thereby closing American territory. asylum system using emergency powers, send thousands of soldiers to repel illegal crossings and stop Biden era programs which allowed some migrants to legally enter the United States.
Even though parts of the asylum ban have been reduced and declared illegal by the courtsThe Trump administration has all but ended the practice of releasing migrants who enter the United States illegally, quickly expelling them or holding them in detention while their cases are reviewed.
Beyond the border, the Trump administration has staged high-profile operations targeting those living in the United States illegally, sending teams of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents across the country in an effort to oversee a deportation campaign of unprecedented scale.
The crackdown was not without controversy. The administration’s border policies have been denounced as inhumane, draconian and illegal by groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged them in federal court on the grounds that they conflict with U.S. and international asylum law as well as the Constitution.
Federal immigration raids well beyond the border have also triggered significant backlash, particularly in major U.S. cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, where large-scale protests broke out. State and local Democrats have denounced the raids as indiscriminate and too harsh, accusing the Trump administration of not focusing solely on deporting violent offenders.
Citing clashes and instances of violence, Mr. Trump in recent days ordered National Guard troops to deploy to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, to protect immigration agents and facilities there. A federal judge has so far blocked plans to send National Guard units to Portland.
Amid the national debate over immigration control, residents of the southern border say it’s undeniable that the reality on the ground has changed significantly.
John Martin said his network of shelters in the Texas border city of El Paso housed hundreds of migrants during spikes in illegal crossings under the Biden administration. On Monday, he said his organization was not housing a single migrant, saying it had received “few or no” new arrivals who are not local homeless residents in recent months. He attributed it to Mr. Trump’s repression.
“If the goal is to reduce numbers, I would say that seems to have been successful, without getting into the politics of whether I like it or not,” Martin said. “We just don’t see people.”
