By S.A. McCarthy, The Washington Stand.
President Donald Trump’s efforts to secure the nation’s southern border have resulted in all-time record border-crossing lows, although top Democrats have been quick to claim that theirs is the border control party. Late Saturday, U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) Chief Michael Banks announced that Trump’s policies and actions have resulted in the lowest number of monthly border apprehensions in recorded U.S. history.
“February proved our combined efforts in securing the border WORK,” Banks announced in a social media post. He continued, “USBP apprehended 8,326 illegal aliens at the U.S.-Mexico border, making it the lowest month in recorded history. We will continue to detect, arrest, identify, prosecute and REMOVE all individuals who dare to break our country’s laws by entering illegally. The border is closed to illegal immigration. Do not come.”
The USBP’s numbers for February represent a more than 70% decrease in apprehensions just from January. Last month, USBP apprehended 29,116 illegal immigrants at the southern border, which itself represented a more than 75% decrease in apprehensions from January 2024, when over 124,000 illegal immigrants were encountered attempting to cross the border.
Trump himself touted the achievement in a separate post to Truth Social. “The month of February, my first full month in Office, had the LOWEST number of Illegal Immigrants trying to enter our Country in History — BY FAR!” the president wrote. He continued, “There were only 8,326 apprehensions of Illegals by Border Patrol at the U.S. — Mexico Border, all of whom were quickly ejected from our Nation or, when necessary, prosecuted for crimes against the United States of America.” Trump explained, “This means that very few people came — The Invasion of our Country is OVER.”
“In comparison, under Joe Biden, there were 300,000 Illegals crossing in one month, and virtually ALL of them were released into our Country,” the president added, referring to his White House predecessor. He concluded, “Thanks to the Trump Administration Policies, the Border is CLOSED to all Illegal Immigrants. Anyone who tries to illegally enter the U.S.A. will face significant criminal penalties and immediate deportation.”
Despite the demonstrable drop in border crossings, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) claimed that the Trump administration is “not focused” on border security. In an interview Friday night, Jeffries claimed, “What we’ve seen from the Trump administration over the last several weeks is just a flood of unprecedented extremism and a parade of horribles that continue to be unleashed on the American people, while, at the same time, the Trump administration is not focused on solving the problems of everyday Americans.” Jeffries instead said that Democrats are focusing on trying “to secure the border” and “keep communities safe.”
“Has House Minority Leader Jeffries not seen the border numbers?” asked Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, in comments to The Washington Stand. She continued, “They’ve dropped like a rock since President Trump re-entered office just one month ago. Trump has secured the border, and he didn’t need the Biden-Schumer Senate border insecurity bill to do it, exposing another Biden lie.” Ries added, “If Jeffries wants to keep communities safe, he would encourage sanctuary jurisdiction leaders to end such policies and give criminal alien information to federal agents and honor ICE detainers for criminal aliens that the same sanctuary jurisdictions decided to criminally detain.”
Andrew R. Arthur, a resident fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, explained to TWS that the Democratic Party, under the leadership of then-President Biden, failed to secure the border. “Simply put,” he said, “while President Biden claimed that he needed congressional action to secure the border, Donald Trump has proven that the executive branch has all of the tools it needs to gain operational control of the borders and the ports — all the president needs is the will to use those tools…” He added, “By any metric — and Congress has implemented a number of them — the border is more secure now than it was during any month under the Biden administration.”
In addition to the presence of CBP, the southern border has been bolstered by U.S. military troops mobilized by the Trump administration. As TWS previously reported, approximately 1,500 troops were ordered to the border in January, supplementing over 2,000 troops already on the ground. According to a report from The Washington Post, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has ordered another 3,000 troops, including a Stryker Brigade Combat Team, to join the border defense force. DOD Chief Spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed the report Saturday.
“These forces will arrive in the coming weeks and their deployment underscores the Department’s unwavering dedication to working alongside the Department of Homeland Security to secure our southern border and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States under President Trump’s leadership,” Parnell said in an official statement. In a subsequent social media post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth added, “We are dead serious about 100% OPERATIONAL CONTROL of the southern border.”
Leaders of Mexican cartels fear that the gathering of troops along the U.S.-Mexico border may be a prelude to U.S. military action targeting the cartels. According to a report from The New York Times, cartel members are going “into hiding” and fearing for their safety “in case the American military strikes inside Mexico.” In addition, increased law enforcement operations by Mexican authorities likely spurred on by the Trump administration’s renewed focus on border security are having an effect. Cartels have shut down drug labs, especially fentanyl labs, and either scaled back or relocated drug production facilities or else just gone on the run. One cartel member told The New York Times, “You can’t be calm, you can’t even sleep, because you don’t know when they’ll catch you.”
The Trump administration recently declared six Mexico-based cartels (along with two international criminal gangs) to be foreign terrorist organizations. The move came as cartels began escalating violence against U.S. border security forces, including by targeting U.S. aircraft and ordering drone attacks against USBP and military troops. Cartels have also begun “amassing military-grade weapons, including I.E.D.s and land mines,” and scanners to detect U.S. drones. Cartel members also told The New York Times that they “would be prepared to respond if raids or strikes were carried out.” One said, “If a helicopter comes here and soldiers drop out, 20 or 30 of them … there’s no way we’d just sit here with our arms crossed.”
This story originally appeared in The Washington Stand.