Number Of Migrants Crossing US-Mexico Border Lowest In Over 50 Years: Data

The number of migrants crossing illegally into the US through the Mexico border has been the lowest in over half a century, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

CBS News reported that in fiscal

year 2025, which spanned four months of former President Joe Biden’s administration, US Border Patrol agents stopped 238,000 migrants crossing the southern border illegally.

During current President Donald Trump’s first eight months in office, less than 9,000 illegal crossings were recorded each month.

It is the lowest number of apprehensions since 1970, when border patrol agents stopped 202,000 people crossing the US-Mexico border unlawfully, CBS reported.

“The numbers demonstrate progress on border security,” said Jennie Murray, president and chief executive of the National Immigration Forum, adding that both parties and the White House need to work on passing immigration legislation.

The data stated that the patrol agents made half of the arrests at the border during the first three months of this fiscal year (October 2024-September 2025).

According to the BBC, the apprehensions indicate the number of times border police stopped and processed migrants entering the country illegally at official ports of entry, which may include people who attempted to cross the border more than once after being stopped.

US Customs and Border Patrol said about 11 million border encounters were recorded over the course of Biden’s four years in office.

The BBC quoted White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson as saying that the latest border figures showed Trump was delivering on his pledge to secure the border.

“As a result, Americans are safer – unvetted criminal illegal aliens and dangerous drugs are no longer pouring over our border unchecked,” she said in an emailed statement. “And for all the Democrats who claimed it was impossible to secure the border or that they needed new policy, turns out all we needed was a new President.”

Since taking office in January, Trump established a number of immigration-related executive orders, including deploying additional troops to the border, ending asylum requests and expanding Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) ability to arrest and detain illegal migrants on US soil. He is also working towards ending birthright citizenship in the US.

For the past several months, the Trump-led administration has conducted several immigration raids in major US cities, including Los Angeles and Chicago.