Illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border have crashed nearly 95 percent from the Biden-era peak under President Trump’s policies, with Border Patrol logging more than 16 straight months of zero releases into the interior.
An unofficial Customs and Border Protection report reviewed by Breitbart Texas shows the scale of the drop. Border Patrol arrested about 8,900 illegal aliens in September after they crossed between ports of entry. That brought the recently closed fiscal year 2026 total to just under 137,000 apprehensions.
Those numbers mark a collapse from the prior crisis. In fiscal 2023, Border Patrol recorded 2,475,669 apprehensions along the southwest border between ports of entry. The Trump administration’s year-end figure represents a 94.47 percent decrease and 2,338,969 fewer illegal crossings than that peak year.
Official CBP reports already showed the trend building. Fiscal 2024 logged 2,135,005 migrant apprehensions. Fiscal 2025, the first full year of the second Trump administration’s policy shift, fell to 443,671. The newest unofficial totals confirm the freefall continued.
Breitbart Texas reported the figures after reviewing the unofficial Border Patrol data and interviewing senior officials who credit the end of catch-and-release.
Department of Homeland Security announced in September that Border Patrol released no illegal aliens into the U.S. interior that month. The streak runs longer. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott told Breitbart News earlier this month the agency will soon report a full year with no releases from the border.
Scott put the claim plainly.
"It’s not out officially yet, but we’re going to report soon: a full year with no releases from the border,"
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin framed the same record as proof the new approach works.
"Sixteen straight months of zero releases at the border proves that President Trump’s policies are working. Catch and release is over, consequences are back, and illegal crossings have fallen to historic lows. This is what a secure border looks like."
Under the prior system, large numbers of illegal aliens were processed and released pending hearings that often never came. The Trump administration ended that practice. Crossers now face detention and immediate consequences instead of a free ticket into the interior.
President Trump has kept pressure on multiple fronts at once, from border enforcement to holding back from targeting Clinton, Biden and Obama in other political fights, while his agencies deliver measurable results on immigration.
The same enforcement shift hit the flow of unaccompanied alien children. In fiscal 2023, Border Patrol apprehended 137,235 UACs at the border. The fiscal 2026 total stands at slightly more than 7,600.
Scott described the new handling. These minors are no longer released to illegal alien parents already in the country or funneled toward labor traffickers. They go to the Department of Health and Human Services.
"Instead, they are being sent to the Department of Health and Human Services, where most are being processed for deportation back home,"
That change removes a major pull factor. Families and smugglers once counted on children reaching U.S. soil and staying. Now the path leads back home for most.
The numbers track the wider collapse in illegal traffic. When consequences return, fewer people attempt the crossing. Taxpayers stop absorbing the cost of endless releases, shelter contracts, and court backlogs that defined the earlier years.
Scott went further in his interview with Matthew Boyle. He explained how the drop damages the cartels’ business model beyond simple smuggling fees.
"People miss this sometimes: The cartels need the illegal [migrants]. It’s a little extra money, but really they need them to overwhelm law enforcement at the border so they can bring the higher-threat commodities, whether it be narcotics, whether it be people that pay more money to avoid being fingerprinted, terrorists, criminals. But they need clutter to drive their costs down. Now they don’t have it... they’re not getting the [migrant customer] recruits they had before."
Volume once served as cover. Mass illegal crossings forced agents to process thousands of people instead of hunting fentanyl loads, special-interest aliens, and higher-paying customers who avoid biometrics. With the “clutter” gone, that cover thins out.
Trump has shown the same willingness to upend failed status-quo arrangements abroad, including when he said Ukraine needs a new president after repeated strikes on Russian energy sites.
At the southwest border the effect is concrete. Agents regain the ability to focus on actual threats rather than warehouse-and-release logistics. Communities inside the country see fewer got-aways and fewer released aliens who never appear for hearings.
Lay the fiscal years side by side and the policy break is obvious. Fiscal 2023 set the high-water mark at nearly 2.5 million between-ports apprehensions. Fiscal 2024 stayed above 2.1 million. Fiscal 2025 plunged below 450,000 once Trump’s release policies took hold. Fiscal 2026 finished under 137,000.
September’s 8,900 arrests fit the new normal. That single month once would have been a quiet week under the old rules. Now it stands as a full month’s work under enforced detention and removal.
Officials tie the results directly to ending catch-and-release and restoring consequences. Crossers learn quickly that illegal entry no longer guarantees a notice-to-appear and a bus ticket north. The incentive structure flipped.
The same administration that delivered these border numbers has also moved aggressively on domestic accountability questions, including when Trump blasted Letitia James as corrupt and urged New Yorkers to remove her.
Scott’s upcoming full-year zero-release report will put an official stamp on what the unofficial data and the 16-month streak already show. Mullin’s statement leaves little room for spin: catch-and-release is over.
Lawful residents and border communities lived with the opposite approach for years. Record crossings, record releases, and cartel profits rolled together. The new totals reverse that pattern with detention, returns, and a sharp cut in the traffic cartels once used as camouflage.
Trump continues to treat enforcement as a core duty rather than a talking point, whether the file is border security or taking a dismissed Clinton lawsuit to the Supreme Court after a sanctions fight.
The southwest border still requires constant work. Yet the verified drop from 2.47 million to under 137,000, the UAC collapse from 137,000 to roughly 7,600, and more than 16 months without interior releases supply the clearest evidence yet that policy, not rhetoric, decides outcomes.
Secure borders are not complicated. Detain, remove, and stop the free pass. The latest CBP figures show what happens when those steps actually occur.