You can almost hear pindrops at the border.
The border crossing has plummeted to levels not seen in decades this month following President Trump's rapid crackdown on illegal immigration in the southwestern region.
In February so far, around 359 illegal immigrants were captured across the southern border per day, according to leaked customs and border security data.
This has led the US to its lowest monthly border crossing in at least 25 years. If the trend continues, the number of illegal immigrants entering the United States could reach levels not seen since 1968, nearly 60 years ago.
The lowest US has seen as “almost a lifetime,” said Mark Kricolian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
“If you're splitting the numbers, if you're splitting by 365, then this number hasn't been this low since the 1960s. So if it's lasting, we're at 60 years' lowest “We're talking about this,” he said.
CBP data shows that just 3,953 illegal immigrants were captured from this month until February 11th.
If the trend continues throughout the month, it will bring the border intersection in February to around 10,000. This is a number that has not been seen since CBP began tracking monthly data in 1999.
The nearest intersection reached 10,000. In April 2017 (shortly after Trump took office for the first time), the monthly intersections exceeded 11,000.
“That's a very small number,” said John Gramrich, associate director at the Pew Research Center.
He noted that border intersections have been flowing for almost a year after former President Joe Biden moved to make it more strict about illegal immigrants claiming asylum at the border.
This time last year, a border agent was watching. 4,850 immigrants Crossing on average daily – more than 10 times the current level, federal data shows.
And the effect is felt throughout the southern border.
In Terrell County, Texas, Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland says his office is flooded with reports of illegal immigrant crossings at this time of the year due to cool weather at the border.
“That's a relief,” Cleveland told the Post.
“We went from one extreme to the historical level of people at the extreme level of historical anxiety. That's very surprising,” he said. .
San Diego, California, remains the number one area of illegal border crossings that 934 illegal immigrants have crossed this month.
The Trump administration has largely blocked the border with Mexico, ended the Biden administration's “catch and release” policy, deployed thousands of additional forces at the border, and launched large deportation efforts across the country.
“In the past few weeks, we have received a message that we can't stomp on the border anymore.
Mexico sent 10,000 troops to the border after Trump threatened to impose a 25% tariff to clean up all imports into the United States.
Meanwhile, the new administration has also focused on increasing ice attacks, leading to arrests of 11,000 illegal immigrants roaming the country within the first 18 days of Trump's tenure.
Trump also began sending illegal immigrant criminals to Guantanamo Bay after the Maduro administration stopped efforts for almost a year and began resuming deportation flights to Venezuela.
Border Patrol chief Mike Banks recently said on Fox & Friends that frontline agents need Trump's leadership to get the job done.
“The US Border Patrol knows how to get the job done, they know how to secure a border,” he said.
“What we need is a president who empowers us, a strong leader like President Trump, and a secretary who knows exactly what we need to do to secure our borders. He was the secretary.”
