Illegal border crossings with Mexico reach lowest level since 1970

Illegal crossings at the southern border with Mexico plummeted to the lowest level since 1970, a White House statement confirmed on Tuesday. This was labeled "another historic victory for American sovereignty and security under President Trump's leadership" is backed up by internal federal data.

As a CBS News report analyzing previously unreported Department of Homeland Security preliminary data shows, "U.S. Border Patrol agents recorded nearly 238,000 apprehensions of migrants crossing the southern border illegally in fiscal year 2025."

The figure is the lowest annual count since fiscal 1970, when the agency reported approximately 202,000 apprehensions along the border with Mexico, according to historical records.

This number also represents a radical change from the record levels of Border Patrol apprehensions recorded during the Biden administration, which faced an unprecedented humanitarian crisis on the border with Mexico. In fiscal year 2022, agents made 2.2 million apprehensions, a record and nearly 10 times the levels recorded in 2025.

"After Biden-era chaos unleashed a record-shattering invasion, the seismic turnaround proves that strong leadership can, in fact, stop the flood of illegal crossings, deadly cartels, and security threats dead in their tracks," the White House wrote in its statement.

50-year lows for illegal crossings

More than 60% of the apprehensions made by the Border Patrol in FY2025 along the border with Mexico were recorded in the last three full months of the Biden administration, explains CBS News.

While in President Trump's first eight full months in office, fewer than 9,000 arrests have been recorded each month, the same numbers the agency recorded in 24-hour periods during some days of Joe Biden's administration.

Internal DHS numbers queried by the report reveal that the Border Patrol made nearly 8,400 border apprehensions in September, up from 6,300 in August and 4,600 in July, an all-time monthly low.