CBP data shows lowest level of illegal southwest border crossers since 1970

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

Illegal border crossings at the southwest border reached their lowest level in September since 1970, according to new preliminary U.S. Customs and Border Protection data reported by the Department of Homeland Security.

In fiscal 2025, southwest border apprehensions totaled 237,565; in fiscal 1970, they totaled 201,780, according to CBP data.

The agency’s fiscal year goes from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30; eight full months occurred under the Trump administration.

In September, nationwide encounters totaled 26,000, down from 26,191 in August, according to the preliminary data. September closes out the fiscal year. The monthly total was 89% lower than the monthly average under the Biden administration.

The lowest illegal border crosser apprehensions and encounters reported on record was in July of 24,598, The Center Square reported. Under the Biden administration, a record high of nearly 371,0000 was reported in December 2024, according to CBP data.

“Fiscal Year 2025 shows what happens when we enforce the law without compromise,” CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said. “For too long, agents and officers were handcuffed by failed policies. Today they are empowered to do their jobs – and the result is the lowest apprehensions in more than five decades, and the most secure border in modern history.”

The majority of illegal southwest border crossings and apprehensions, 72%, occurred in four months of the fiscal year under the Biden administration.

CBP and Border Patrol agents apprehended 172,026 illegal border crossers at the southwest border in the first 111 days of the fiscal year. Over the next 254 days under the Trump administration, they apprehended 65,539 illegal border crossers, 27% of the year’s total.

Fiscal 2025 southwest border apprehensions were 87% below the average of the last four fiscal years of 1.86 million, according to the data.

Average daily southwest border apprehensions totaled 279 in September, less than those who were apprehended in two hours under the Biden administration.

Daily apprehensions at the southwest border were 95% lower than the Biden administration’s daily average of 5,110 from February 2021 through December 2024, according to the data.

DHS officials previously repeatedly claimed that zero illegal border crossers have been released into the country under the Trump administration. “For four straight months, United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has released zero illegal aliens into the country,” it reported last month.

CBP data contradicts this claim.

More than 13,000 inadmissible noncitizens were released into the U.S. in the first four full months of the Trump administration who arrived at ports of entries nationwide, according to CBP data published by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, The Center Square reported. The data excludes gotaways, those who evaded capture and illegally entered the country, also deemed inadmissible. Gotaways totaled more than two million under the Biden administration, The Center Square exclusively reported.

This month, CBP modified its statement, saying that September was the fifth consecutive month that Border Patrol agents didn’t release illegal border crossers into the country along the southwest border, compared to 9,144 they released last September.

The preliminary data excludes illegal border crosser apprehensions and releases at the northern border and nationwide ports of entry.

Illegal border crosser data in fiscal 2025 was a marked reversal from the Biden administration numbers that regularly broke daily, weekly and monthly illegal entry and apprehension records.

At least more than 14 million illegal border crossers were reported nationwide during the Biden administration, The Center Square exclusively reported.

That estimate is believed to be much higher when including millions of people who were unlawfully released into the country through parole programs and millions more gotaways who were underreported, authorities have told The Center Square.