The number of migrants caught crossing the southern border illegally set a new historic monthly low in June, continuing an extraordinary lull in illegal immigration the Trump administration has attributed to its aggressive deportation efforts, preliminary government data obtained by CBS News shows.
Last month, Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border recorded just over 6,000 apprehensions of migrants who entered the country without authorization, the lowest monthly tally ever reported by the agency, according to the preliminary Customs and Border Protection data. The previous monthly low reported by Border Patrol was in March, when the agency recorded around 7,200 migrant apprehensions.
The numbers stand in stark contrast to the record levels of apprehensions made by Border Patrol under the Biden administration, which faced a humanitarian, political and operational crisis of unprecedented proportions at the southern border until it implemented restrictive asylum measures last year.
During many months of former President Joe Biden’s tenure, Border Patrol recorded more than 6,000 apprehensions each day. At their peak in late 2023, daily illegal crossings at the southern border topped 10,000 on some days.
Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar, confirmed the roughly 6,000 Border Patrol apprehensions recorded in June. He added that Border Patrol did not release a single migrant for a second consecutive month. During some months under the Biden administration, tens of thousands of migrants were released into the U.S. with instructions to show up in immigration court to plead their cases.
“We have never seen numbers this low. Never,” Homan wrote on X.
While Border Patrol has not publicly reported monthly apprehension data before fiscal year 2000, the last time the agency averaged close to 6,000 migrant interdictions per month over a year was in the late 1960s, historical figures indicate.
Immediately after taking office in January, President Trump empowered border officials to swiftly deport migrants — without hearing their asylum claims — under an emergency proclamation he argued was needed to quell an “invasion.” That policy is being challenged in court by civil rights advocates, who argue it violates U.S. asylum law. Immigration authorities were also directed to halt all releases, absent life-threatening circumstances.
Mr. Trump has deployed thousands of additional active-duty troops to the southern border, tasking them with repelling illegal crossings through the construction of barriers. Along some parts of the border with Mexico, the U.S. military has set up zones where soldiers can temporarily detain migrants, before transferring them to immigration officials.
In the interior of the country, the Trump administration has tasked Immigration and Customs Enforcement with overseeing large-scale arrests of immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally. Last week, the number of individuals held in ICE detention set a record high.
Amid the historic lull in illegal crossings, hundreds of Border Patrol agents have been assigned to help ICE with immigration arrests away from the border, in places like Los Angeles.
The administration has also staged an intense messaging campaign to compel immigrants in the U.S. illegally to self-deport. It has offered them carrots in the form of travel assistance though a government smartphone app and a $1,000 self-deportation bonus.
But it has also threatened those who refuse to leave with arrest and forcible deportation, and even the possibility of ending up detained at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, a tent facility in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” or a maximum-security mega prison in El Salvador.
Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown has not been without criticism. In communities across the U.S., especially Democratic-led cities, videos of masked federal agents arresting unauthorized immigrants at courthouses or outside homes have triggered outcry from local residents and politicians.
Some Republicans have urged the Trump administration to prioritize the arrest of migrants with serious criminal records amid concerns that its crackdown is extending well beyond the dangerous individuals the president promised to expel. Recent figures show fewer than 10% of those booked in ICE detention in recent months were convicted of violent crimes.
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