More than a year after the Trump administration shut down the southern border and declared the "invasion over," it is still holding. The Department of Homeland Security reports 14 consecutive months of no releases at the southern border, with overall encounters down 94% from the Biden administration. In fact, the average number of encounters for the entire 2026 fiscal year is lower than the average of just one month in 2024.
Despite illegal crossings already slowing to a trickle, the number still continues to drop. Customs and Border Protection reports a 4 percent decline in border encounters between May and June. Ira Mehlman with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) says this shows that border security is a powerful deterrent to illegal immigration. "Potential crossers are seeing that even if you get to the border, even if you cross the border, you have almost a 100% chance of getting apprehended and being sent back," he tells KTRH. "So as long as we keep doing this, we're going to see more and more people deciding it just isn't worth trying to break our laws."
The difference in only a couple of years is stark. Compare the current average of a handful of crossings per month with more than 300,000 during one month during the Biden administration.
And it's not just individuals being stopped at the border. DHS reports a more than 50% increase in illegal drug seizures at the southern border this year compared with 2024. At the same time, ICE continues to arrest and deport dangerous criminal illegals within the interior of the country. But all of it starts at square one with sealing off the southern border. "This has a cascading effect," says Mehlman. "When you stop the casual illegal immigrant who thinks they can take advantage of an open border, it frees up a lot of resources to go after the really bad guys...and that is exactly what is happening now."
Photo: AFP
