Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday heads the day after President Donald Trump touted a sharp drop in border crossings, and the day after crossing the border.
Vance is touring the border of Eagle Pass, Texas, with directors of Defense Secretary Pete Hegses and National Intelligence Director Tarsi Gabbard. The Eagle Pass was one of the hot spots at border intersections at the height of the historic Biden-era border crisis.
Trump has centered on his 2024 campaign on his promise to crack down on illegal immigration, and he has deployed many steps early on. On the first day he declared a national emergency at the border and signed an executive order to deploy the military. He also ordered the reopening of border wall construction and the end of Biden's parole policy.
Trump respects the lives of Rayken Riley and Joselyn Nungarei while celebrating his progress in securing the border
President Donald Trump attended a joint Congressional meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on March 4, 2025. (Get McNamee/Pool via Reuters)
The Pentagon quickly deployed its troops and opened Guantanamo Bay to migrant flights. The Department of Homeland Security stripped restrictions from internal enforcement and expanded the use of rapid removal, but the Department has secured additional cooperation with the state to return immigrants.
The administration has launched a massive internal affairs exercise. There, daily arrests regularly strike more than 1,000 people a day, but authorities show they want numbers to rise even higher.
Noem says DHS “will not be stopped” after crashing into a new leak prior to the Virginia attack
The administration pointed to figures showing a sharp increase in internal arrests and a sharp decline in border encounters compared to the Biden era.
In February there were 8,326 tropical border encounters, falling from 189,913 in February 2024. So far, it has removed more than 55,000 illegal immigrants from the United States.
Trump promoted these numbers in his speech to Congress Tuesday night.
The Army Major General Henry S. Dixon, Left, North Commander Joint Task Force discusses the Southern border operations with Marines assigned to the 1st Marine Division, 1st Battle Engineers Battalion, near San Isidro, California, on January 28, 2025. (Domestic Defense)
“Within a few hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency at the southern border, deployed US troops and border patrols to fight back our country's invasions, and the work they did. As a result, last month, illegal border intersections were recorded more than ever before,” he said.
“They heard me, but they chose not to come.”
For immigration compensation, click here
He also laughed at the Democrats and the Biden administration's claim that laws are needed to resolve the crisis.
“But it turns out that all we really needed was a new president,” he said.
Click here to get the Fox News app
Meanwhile, a Border Patrol source told Fox News that on Tuesday there were only 271 encounters across the southern border, with only 14 in the Del Rio sector, where Vance is visiting.
Brooke Taylor and the Associated Press of Fox News contributed to this report.
