President Trump’s border success appears to have plateaued, with the Border Patrol reporting encounters of illegal immigrants at the southern border rose slightly last month.
Agents nabbed 8,383 people sneaking across, up from about 7,200 in March, which was a record low. The numbers are still down 93% compared to the same time last year under President Joseph R. Biden.
Even more stunning is the turnaround in catch-and-release, which has dropped 99.99%
The Department of Homeland Security said just five illegal immigrants were granted release into the U.S., in order to take part in critical court cases. That’s down from 68,000 catch-and-releases at the southern border in April 2024, the department said.
“For the first time in years, more agents are back in the field — patrolling territories that CBP didn’t have the bandwidth or manpower to oversee just six months ago,” said Pete Flores, acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. “But thanks to this administration’s dramatic shift in security posture at our border, we are now seeing operational control becoming a reality — and it’s only just beginning.”
Overall, CBP recorded 29,238 encounters with unauthorized migrants nationwide. That includes land borders as well as air and sea arrivals, and covers both Border Patrol arrests and port officers’ encounters with travelers.
That figure was up slightly compared to February and March, but still well below the numbers under Mr. Biden, which never dipped below 100,000, and in some months topped 300,000.
The Border Patrol saw a slight increase in the number of families and children traveling unaccompanied at the southern border.
And agents also detected two attempted entries by illegal immigrants whose identities triggered flags in the terrorist watchlist. That’s down from the average of about 10 per month under Mr. Biden, but ticked up from February and March, when agents didn’t detect any terrorism suspect crossings along the southern border.
Migrant shelters along both sides of the U.S.-Mexico the border have emptied out as people have stopped making the journey.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Congress last week that as many as 600,000 illegal immigrants who had made their way through Mexico to the U.S. turned around when they saw Mr. Trump take office.
The smuggling cartels have also taken a major hit to their income streams with the lower number of customers.
Cartels have responded with chaos in the smuggling market, charging anywhere from a few thousand dollars up to more than $20,000 to try to get someone across the border.
Mexicans are the dominant demographic at the southern border, accounting for 73% of Border Patrol agents’ arrests last month.
Mr. Trump has slashed arrivals by other nationalities.
Venezuelans, who had poured into the U.S. at a rate of anywhere from 10,000 to 60,000 a month for most of the Biden administration, dropped to just 362 migrants across all borders and ports of entry.
Cubans have dropped from nearly 18,000 last year at this time to just 130 in April. Haitians have fallen from more than 21,000 to 60.
Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America, who had been major sending countries in the early Biden years at about 50,000 a month, accounted for just 2,432 encounters nationwide in April.
