EXCLUSIVE — Leaked government data set to be publicly released in the coming weeks show the number of illegal immigrants apprehended by Border Patrol for attempting to enter the country illegally from Mexico declined by more than 2 million in President Donald Trump’s first full fiscal year in office compared to his predecessor’s year one.
asserted
number → leak → year
Internal numbers from Customs and Border Protection obtained by the Washington Examiner on Tuesday revealed Border Patrol agents assigned to the southern border arrested just under 98,701 illegal immigrants in fiscal 2026, which ran from October 2025 through September 2026, making it the lowest annual total in at least 59 years.
asserted
it → obtain → years
An average of 8,225 were encountered each month.
asserted
average → encounter → 8,225
The 2026 figure is more than 95% lower than the 2.2 million arrests Border Patrol made at the southern border in fiscal 2022, former President Joe Biden’s first full year in office, CBP data show.
asserted
data → make → office
Four years ago, an average of 183,000 illegal immigrants were encountered and taken into custody every month, which is more in one month than over the past 12 months.
asserted
which → encounter → months
The Border Patrol does not publicly list how many arrests agents made only at the southern border going back to its inception in 1924, making it impossible to know the last time such a low figure was observed there.
asserted
figure → list → time
However, the 98,701 figure is the lowest since 1967, when 94,778 arrests were made nationwide, according to Border Patrol data.
uncertain
arrests → make → data
The southern border has historically seen more than 90% of all illegal immigrant arrests nationwide, as opposed to the Canadian border or coastal border.
asserted
border → see → border
Between 2010 and 2020, arrests in all but one year held between 300,000 and 500,000 per year.
asserted
arrests → hold → year
In Trump’s first term in office, Border Patrol arrests quickly dropped off for several months in 2017 but then rose again sharply as Mexican cartels realized the United States had not changed any policies and the cartels’ methods would prevail at the border.
asserted
methods → drop → border
The Biden administration weathered a border crisis that brought millions of people to the U.S. and resulted in roughly 5 million being released into the country from the border, as well as hundreds of thousands who used parole programs to fly in from abroad, in addition to those who entered illegally and were not caught.
asserted
who → weather → those
Republicans hammered Biden with claims that his immigration promises enticed people from around the world to travel to the U.S.
uncertain
promises → hammer → U.S.
Upon taking office, the Biden administration stopped turning away unaccompanied child migrants, attempted to halt Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations for 100 days, and suspended border wall construction.
asserted
administration → take → construction
Republicans accused Biden and former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of allowing the crisis to go on for more than three years before taking actions that resulted in reduced illegal immigration attempts.
asserted
that → accuse → attempts
Democrats and immigrant rights organizations have touted the impacts of the pandemic, halt on global travel, economic downfall, and rise of technology as fueling millions of people from outside Mexico and Central America to suddenly migrate to the U.S.
It was not until months before the 2024 election that the Biden administration took actions that led to fewer people attempting to cross the southern border illegally.
asserted
people → tout → border
Trump’s first acts in the White House included more than a dozen executive actions specifically focused on the border and immigration, which were among the first of more than 200 actions that his office promised to push through in his first days.
asserted
office → include → days
Within days of Trump’s election last November, arrests at the border dropped, which some dubbed the Trump effect.
asserted
some → drop → which
Trump vowed as a 2024 presidential candidate to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and delivered on this promise, but in the lead-up to the midterm elections, Republican candidates have not significantly focused on reminding voters about Trump’s achievements at the border.
asserted
candidates → vow → border
Right-leaning immigration and campaign analysts told the Washington Examiner in interviews last week that candidates have seemed to skirt the topic and offered several likely reasons, including that it is old news, other issues are more pressing, and that it upset voters who are concerned about deportations, which make up the more controversial half of Trump’s immigration agenda.
asserted
which → lean → agenda
CBP did not respond to a request for comment.
asserted
CBP → respond → comment
The Aporia
