New fiscal year begins with lowest border apprehensions in recorded history

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

Illegal border crossings continued an historic downward trajectory in October and November, representing the lowest numbers ever reported at the beginning of a fiscal year in recorded U.S. history. The fiscal year goes from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

In October, 30,573 illegal border crosser apprehensions/encounters were reported nationwide – a massive drop from 142,742 in October 2024, 309,605 in October 2023 and 278,317 in October 2022, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

According to preliminary data for November, illegal border crosser apprehensions and encounters nationwide were slightly lower – 30,367.

The numbers include apprehensions made by Border Patrol agents nationwide between ports of entry and by CBP agents at ports of entry.

“Our focus is unwavering: secure the border, enforce the law, and protect this nation,” CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said. “These numbers reflect the tireless efforts of our agents and officers who are delivering results that redefine border security. We’re not slowing down. We’re setting the pace for the future.”

The total encounters in October and November – 60,940 – are lower than all of the first two months of any fiscal year to date. The next lowest number was reported in fiscal 2012 of 84,293, according to CBP data.

Notably, the total number of illegal border crossers apprehended in the first 10 months of the Trump administration were less than the number of foreign nationals who illegally entered the country under the Biden administration in one month.

From Jan. 21 through end of November, there were 117,105 total illegal border crosser apprehensions along the southwest border, 37% less than the monthly average of 185,625 during the Biden administration, according to the data.

Border Patrol apprehensions averaged less than 10,000 a month at the southwest border since President Donald Trump took office, “a level of deterrence unmatched in modern border history,” Scott said.

Average apprehensions along the southwest border totaled 245 per day, less than 11 people per hour. That’s 95% lower than the daily average under the Biden administration, which saw the highest numbers in recorded U.S. history. From February 2021 through December 2024, Border Patrol agents faced a minimum of 5,110 apprehensions a day along the southwest border, according to CBP data.

In December 2023, at the height of the border crisis, with December being a normally slow winter month, 336 illegal border crossers were apprehended every hour. That’s more than the daily total of apprehensions under the Trump administration.

Every month and every year the greatest number of illegal border crossers were single adults, followed by single adults claiming to be in a family unit, and unaccompanied children, according to the data.

The data excludes “gotaways,” the official CBP term for foreign nationals who illegally enter between ports of entry to evade capture. They don’t make immigration claims and don’t return to Mexico or Canada. The majority have been found to have criminal records or were previously deported, authorities have said.

CBP doesn’t publicly release gotaway data. The Center Square exclusively obtained it from a Border Patrol agent every month, revealing that more than two million gotaways were recorded by Border Patrol agents during the Biden administration. The total is expected to be much higher because not all gotaways were reported.

As record numbers of illegal border crossers poured through, Border Patrol agents were pulled from the field to process them into the country contrary to federal law, creating a national security crisis, they argued.

Retired San Diego Chief Border Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke testified before Congress that Border Patrol agents across the southwest border were taken out of the field to process everyone into the country, including “groups of hundreds and thousands coming into the United States and turning themselves in.” The result was “80% to 90%, sometimes 100% of the agents on duty [were taken] away from” the southwest border. Hundreds of miles of the border were left unstaffed, unprotected and unpatrolled where there was “no agent presence for weeks and months at a time,” he said, The Center Square reported.

Foreign nationals “who did not want to be caught could simply walk in. … We have no idea who and what entered our country over this time.”

Under the Trump administration, Border Patrol agents were put back in the field, Biden administration policies were reversed and illegal border crossers aren’t being released but processed for removal.