Why border rescues fell from 100 a day to fewer than 4 under Trump

Border Patrol agents used to rescue more than 100 migrants a day in 2023. This year, they’re averaging fewer than four rescues a day — a sharp sign of how much illegal crossings have slowed under President Trump.

At the height of the crisis under President Biden, children made up half of the people crossing the border, often getting lost in the desert or attempting to swim the Rio Grande. Some drowned.

Homeland Security has now gone 15 straight months without a single catch-and-release, the practice of releasing migrants into the U.S. while their cases are pending. Mr. Biden’s administration saw more than 100,000 catch-and-releases in some months of 2023.

Agents are now averaging 6,000 to 10,000 arrests a month along the border, down from a pace that topped 1.5 million crossings in fiscal year 2024. Customs and Border Protection is on track to set a new record low this fiscal year.

“These results show what is possible when border security is treated as a national priority,” said CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott.

A new Treasury Department analysis also found that smuggling cartels are losing income, with suspicious financial transactions tied to human smuggling dropping from more than 7,000 a quarter under Mr. Biden to fewer than 2,000 a quarter recently.

Some immigrant rights advocates say the tighter policies are also blocking people with legitimate asylum claims from reaching the U.S.

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