Trump Administration Reports on 2025 Fiscal Year Border Patrol Numbers

The Trump administration recently announced the closure of U.S. Border Patrol concerns for the 2025 fiscal year, a significant event, as it marks the first such closure since 1970.

Preliminary data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) indicate that there were 237,565 apprehensions in fiscal year 2025, a notable rise from the 201,780 incidents recorded back in 1970. Interestingly, a substantial 72% of those apprehensions occurred during the final 111 days of the Biden administration. This fiscal year spanned from October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025.

Commissioner of CBP, Rodney Scott, remarked, “FY 2025 demonstrates the effects of law enforcement without compromise.” He emphasized that agents, previously restricted by ineffective policies, are now empowered to fulfill their duties, leading to the lowest concerns in over five decades and the most secure border in modern times.

The fiscal statistics are strikingly low, as the apprehensions for this year are reportedly 87% lower than the average of 1.86 million incidents over the past four fiscal years. DHS is highlighting this figure as evidence of accomplishments in managing border control, despite, as noted, the “open border disruptions” experienced for more than three months during Biden’s tenure at the beginning of the fiscal year.

September 2025 was also significant as it marked five years without any illegal immigrant releases by Border Patrol along the Southwest border, a stark contrast to the 9,144 releases recorded in September 2024.

A closer look at the figures shows that most apprehensions were logged during Trump’s administration, where 172,026 events occurred under Biden. The Trump era recorded 65,539 apprehensions over the subsequent 254 days, representing only 27% of the overall annual total.

In September, Border Patrol’s daily apprehensions averaged about 279 cases along the Southwest border, a dramatic 95% drop from the previous administration’s daily average of 5,110 from February 2021 to December 2024. CBP indicated that approximately 26,000 encounters took place in September, which was nearly unchanged from August’s 26,191 and significantly lower than the previous administration’s monthly averages.

Securing the border is a key focus for Trump’s re-election campaign in 2024. On his first day as President, he took steps to bolster personnel at the southern border and instructed agents to strictly enforce federal immigration laws, ending the controversial “catch and release” practice. This involved releasing immigrants while they await their hearings.

Moreover, Trump halted the use of the CBP One app that was utilized to parole immigrants, instead redesigning it for self-reporting purposes. This app, which emerged under Biden, had been used by nearly a million migrants to schedule appointments at official entry points, enabling them to seek asylum while under a temporary work authorization that allowed them to remain in the U.S. for two years as they awaited their cases.

The drop in border-related numbers is notable, despite Biden’s insistence last year on the need for new Congressional legislation to manage border crossings effectively.