When President Trump first took office in 2017, border apprehensions immediately took a downward turn. In the first six months of Trump’s first term, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended around 140,000 migrants.
This figure is only half of how many apprehensions took place in the first six months of 2016. A similar phenomenon has occurred within Trump’s first three months into his second term.
In the first few months of Biden’s term, apprehensions increased and March alone saw 172,000. This trend carried on through the years such as an 139% increase in apprehensions in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 compared to FY 2021.
In the first six months of FY 2024, the Border Patrol apprehended over a million migrants. This kind of data is what fueled the Trump campaign and made immigration such an important issue for the election.
Now that Trump is back in office, the border has been made a high priority. Deportations are numerous and the Border Patrol has largely secured the border.
In the first three months of his second term, border apprehensions numbered only around 50,000. This is a significant decrease from the Biden administration.
To put this in perspective, apprehensions in March 2025 were 95% lower than those of March 2024. After this data was posted to X, a number of Republican lawmakers weighed in to express the significance of it.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R) expressed how this is what the border should like. He goes on to make a comparison to the Biden administration's record on this issue.
Emmer stated, “In only 3 months, (President Trump) secured a border that was opened wide by the Biden administration for four years. This is what making America SAFE and SECURE again looks like.”
Representative Jim Jordan (R) chimed in to say that this new data only reinforces Trump’s security-focused agenda.
Jordan stated, “Border crossings down to an all-time low. Criminals, illegal gang members, and terrorists deported. Drug trafficking shut down. America is secure under President Trump.”
