Trump admin announces fewest border apprehensions since 1970

The Trump administration has announced it closed out fiscal year 2025 with the lowest U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions since 1970.

The preliminary enforcement figures, announced by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), reveal 237,565 apprehensions in fiscal year 2025 compared to 201,780 in fiscal year 1970.

The historically low figures come despite 72% of the total occurring during the last 111 days of the Biden administration. Fiscal year 2025 ran from Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025.

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The numbers are also 87% below the average of the last four fiscal years, which was 1.86 million, with DHS touting the feat as a testament to the Trump administration’s success in restoring control at the border “despite the handicap of more than three months of Biden’s open-border chaos at the start of the fiscal year.”

“Fiscal year 2025 shows what happens when we enforce the law without compromise,” said CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott. “For too long, agents and officers were handcuffed by failed policies. Today they are empowered to do their jobs – and the result is the lowest apprehensions in more than five decades, and the most secure border in modern history.”

September also marked the fifth consecutive month with zero illegal immigrant releases by the Border Patrol along the southwest border, compared to 9,144 releases in September 2024.

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The numbers show that most encounters occurred under the previous administration, with 172,026 apprehensions occurring under the Biden administration. Over the next 254 days, the Trump administration recorded 65,539 apprehensions, accounting for just 27% of the year’s total.

In September, Border Patrol agents averaged roughly 279 apprehensions per day along the Southwest border — about 8,300 for the month — marking a 95% drop from the previous administration’s daily average of about 5,110 between February 2021 and December 2024, according to CBP figures.

CBP recorded about 26,000 encounters across all modes of entry in September, essentially unchanged from 26,191 in August, and approximately 89% lower than the prior administration’s monthly average.

President Donald Trump made securing the nation’s borders a cornerstone of his 2024 re-election campaign.

On his first day in office, Trump deployed additional personnel to the southern border and instructed agents to enforce federal immigration laws. He ended “catch-and-release,” the practice of releasing migrants while they wait for hearings.

He also ended the use of the CBP One app to parole migrants and later repurposed it to be used by migrants to self-deport.

The app, which was rolled out under the Biden administration, was initially used by nearly 1 million migrants to schedule appointments at official ports of entry before they were paroled into the U.S. The migrants were permitted to seek asylum and given temporary work authorization for two years while they waited for the outcomes of their respective proceedings. 

His administration also paused applications for parole programs and allowed ICE to cancel parole statuses of migrants.

The reduction in numbers has come despite then-President Joe Biden repeatedly insisting last year that new congressional legislation was essential to controlling border crossings.