Visualizing the Plunge in Border Crossings Under Trump

After a slight rise in May, arrests of immigrants illegally crossing the United States border with Mexico are back on the decline, reaching near-record lows.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, shared the Border Patrol's apprehension numbers for June, with 6,070 arrests between official ports of entry. That's down from over 83,000 in June 2024 for a roughly 93 percent year-over-year decline.

Why It Matters

Trump returned to the White House promising a more secure southwest border, after nearly four years of high crossing numbers under former President Joe Biden. While deportations remain a focus, the administration's deliverance of this pledge is being widely celebrated as a victory for border security.

What To Know

June's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) figures are yet to officially be announced by the agency, but Homan has been sharing updates earlier over the past few months.

Numbers had been on the decline since June 2024, but the pace quickened following Inauguration Day. January, when Biden was still in office, saw 29,116 arrests, with that number dropping sharply to 8,347 in February.

Click the play button on the graphic below to see how crossings have declined.

The plunge comes after Trump effectively shut off crossings at official ports of entry for migrants seeking asylum or other forms of entry via the Biden-era CBP One app. Mexico has also been playing a greater role in keeping immigrants passing through the country from reaching the U.S. border.

A similar drop occured in 2017 during the first year of Trump's first term, before numbers began trending upwards again until the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. That drop did not last for long, with numbers climbing during the tail-end of Trump's first term through the Biden administration and peaking in December 2023, at 249,740 apprehensions.

During that period, a stretched CBP released many immigrants into the U.S. interior while they waited for their cases to be heard. Trump pledged to end that policy, known as "catch-and-release," and last month there were zero migrants apprehended by the Border Patrol who were then released into the country.

What People Are Saying

Tom Homan, on X: "President Trump has created the most secure border in the history of the nation and the data proves it. We have never seen numbers this low. Never. God bless the men and women of the US Border Patrol and God bless the men and women of ICE. The interior arrests and consequences help to drive down illegal immigration. The TRUMP EFFECT keeps America winning."

President Trump, speaking in Florida Tuesday: "With the help of those incredible Border Patrol agents, we now have the lowest level of daily border crossings ever recorded... Last month, the number of illegal aliens into the United States was zero... But there's still much work to do."

Democratic Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, on NBC's Meet The Press: "No, I don't give [Trump admin] credit for that — border crossings are low because they're violating the law every day. We have a law in this country that says if you are fleeing terror or torture from another country, you can come here and apply for asylum. The Trump administration has suspended that law."

What's Next

CBP has been dismantling temporary holding facilities used at the peak of the border crisis, saying they are no longer needed. The agency will provide its official rundown of June's actions later this month.