For the first time in half a century, America’s southern frontier is quiet. Crossings have plunged to their lowest level since the early 1970s — the result of a president who decided the law should mean what it says.
Internal DHS data obtained by CBS News show just 238,000 apprehensions in fiscal year 2025 — a number not seen since 1970, when Border Patrol logged roughly 202,000.
It is a breathtaking reversal. Under Joe Biden, the total reached 2.2 million, a torrent of chaos that overwhelmed towns, agents, and policy alike. Under Donald Trump, that flood has slowed to a trickle.
More than 60% of this year’s arrests occurred in Biden’s final months, the report notes — the last spasm of an open-border era that ended when Trump’s new rules took hold in January.
The change has been both visible and swift: deportations expanded, asylum tightened, National Guard units surged, and physical barriers renewed. Border agents now record fewer than 9,000 crossings a month — the same number they once saw in a single Biden-era day.
September closed at 8,400, up slightly from August’s 6,300 — still near historic lows.
For decades, Washington treated the border as a riddle it could not solve. Trump treated it as a test of will — and passed.
After years of drift and denial, the numbers tell the story: the southern border is no longer a wound. It’s a line again.
Illegal crossings along U.S.-Mexico border plummet to lowest annual level since 1970 https://t.co/R7ShDqwaZ7
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 7, 2025
