Border crossing numbers hit a new low in March, with federal agents encountering about 7,000 people entering the U.S. illegally last month, mainly through the San Diego and El Paso sectors.
Compared to March 2024, when 137,000 individuals crossed the southern border illegally, that’s a 94 percent decrease.
Homeland Security officials told the New York Post it’s easy to explain the decline: “the Trump effect.”
Now those considering crossing the border illegally are thinking twice since there are consequences under the Trump administration, one DHS source told the outlet, explaining “everyone who is caught is charged and does time.”
If the border crossings continue to stay at these levels, the US could see the number of illegal migrants hit a low not seen since 1968.
Upon entering office, Trump declared an emergency at the border, sent thousands of additional troops to the region, shut off the asylum system to illegal crossers and commenced a mass deportation effort across the US.
With crossings slowing to a trickle, Border Patrol has closed several processing centers used to hold migrants for short periods of time.
Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has “maxed out” its detention space and is asking Congress to fund additional beds to support its mass deportation campaign that yielded 32,000 arrests in its first 50 days. (New York Post)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem highlighted some of the administration's successes in just the first couple of months.
"We have deported over 120 people that are on the known terrorist watchlist out of this country, over 800 [Tren de Aragua] members, and over 100,000 different arrests have been made of criminals," she told Fox News.
"We have deported over 120 people that are on the known terrorist watchlist out of this country, over 800 [Tren de Aragua] members, and over 100,000 different arrests have been made of criminals," says @Sec_Noem.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 31, 2025
"President Trump is on the right side of history."' pic.twitter.com/9zPILCyR3A
She also defended her recent video from El Salvador's high security prison where the U.S. has transferred some TdA and MS-13 terrorists, saying it is the transparency the American people want to see.
.@Sec_Noem on touring El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center: "People need to see that image. They need to see that the United States is going to use every tool that we have to make our communities safer — that that's a consequence of someone who is a terrorist." pic.twitter.com/BJ7fT4XmUU
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 31, 2025
Her video also served as a warning to criminal aliens in the U.S. to "leave now."
I toured the CECOT, El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center.
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) March 26, 2025
President Trump and I have a clear message to criminal illegal aliens: LEAVE NOW.
If you do not leave, we will hunt you down, arrest you, and you could end up in this El Salvadorian prison. pic.twitter.com/OItDqNsFxM