The Trump administration has announced it closed out fiscal year 2025 with the lowest U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions since 1970.

The initial enforcement statistics disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) showcase 237,565 apprehensions in the fiscal year 2025 in contrast to 201,780 during the fiscal year 1970.

Despite historically low statistics, 72% of the total occurred in the concluding 111 days of the Biden administration. The fiscal year 2025 spanned from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025.

The data indicates that the majority of the encounters transpired during the prior administration, with 172,026 apprehensions happening under Biden. Throughout the subsequent 254 days, the Trump administration tallied 65,539 apprehensions, representing merely 27% of the annual total.

September saw Border Patrol agents averaging around 279 daily apprehensions along the Southwest border, roughly 8,300 for the month, exhibiting a 95% decrease from the previous administration’s daily average of approximately 5,110 between February 2021 and December 2024, according to CBP data.

CBP documented close to 26,000 encounters across all entry methods in September, maintaining consistency with 26,191 in August, and recording approximately an 89% reduction compared to the former administration’s monthly average.

President Donald Trump made securing the nation’s borders a cornerstone of his 2024 re-election campaign.

On his first day in office, Trump deployed additional personnel to the southern border and instructed agents to enforce federal immigration laws. He ended “catch-and-release,” the practice of releasing migrants while they wait for hearings.

Trump ended the use of the CBP One app to parole migrants and later repurposed it to be used by migrants to self-deport. (HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

He also ended the use of the CBP One app to parole migrants and later repurposed it to be used by migrants to self-deport.

The app, which was rolled out under the Biden administration, was initially used by nearly 1 million migrants to schedule appointments at official ports of entry before they were paroled into the U.S. The migrants were permitted to seek asylum and given temporary work authorization for two years while they waited for the outcomes of their respective proceedings. 

His administration also paused applications for parole programs and allowed ICE to cancel parole statuses of migrants.

The reduction in numbers has come despite then-President Joe Biden repeatedly insisting last year that new congressional legislation was essential to controlling border crossings.