Illegal immigration attempts down 95% in Trump's first year versus under Biden
- Leaked CBP data shows Border Patrol arrests plummeted to 98,701 in FY2026—lowest in 59 years, a 95% drop from Biden's 2 million in FY2021.
- Monthly encounters averaged a mere 8,225, versus Biden-era surges that overwhelmed facilities and made 'catch and release' a national punchline.
- The dramatic decline comes as Trump's mass deportation raids and 'Remain in Mexico' 2.0 turned the border into a ghost town for smugglers.
- Washington Examiner obtained the internal numbers ahead of an official release, suggesting the administration wants to weaponize the stat before midterms.
- Critics whisper the drop is a mirage—claiming migrants are simply routed through legal ports or hiding deeper in the desert—but the data says otherwise.
Brief Summary
In a stunning leak from the bowels of Customs and Border Protection, the Washington Examiner got its mitts on internal spreadsheets showing Border Patrol agents nabbed just 98,701 illegal crossers in Trump's first full fiscal year—a number that hasn't been this low since the Johnson administration was smoking something other than policy. That's a 95% crater compared to Biden's year one, where nearly 2 million walked through a southern border that was less a boundary and more a revolving door. The monthly average of 8,225 encounters is the kind of figure that makes Biden-era Border Patrol agents weep into their tactical vests. While the administration is sitting on the data for a few weeks (probably to pick the most politically explosive moment to detonate it), the numbers already scream one thing: the wall—metaphorically and literally—is working, or at least the threat of a one-way ticket to a detention center is. Of course, skeptics will point to shifting smugglers' routes, legal port overload, or the fact that even desperate migrants read the news and know crossing now means getting a free ride to a Texas holding cell. But the raw math is as close to a policy mic-drop as you'll get in this circus.
Why This Matters
For the average reader, this isn't just a stat to argue over at Thanksgiving; it's a gut-check on who actually controls the border. If this leaked number holds up when officially released, it transforms Trump's border policy from a loud, messy campaign slogan into a measurable win that Biden's team can't spin away—unless they're prepared to explain why 1.9 million fewer people trying to get in is somehow a bad thing. For voters tired of the endless asylum debates, this is the kind of concrete data that makes or breaks trust in government competence, especially when your neighbor is complaining about fentanyl or crowded shelters. It also reignites the question: was the surge under Biden a policy choice or a force of nature? If it was the latter, then Trump just beat Mother Nature with a spreadsheet and a deportation flight schedule. On a personal level, this story matters because it shapes your safety, your tax dollars, and the political yardstick used to measure the next four years. Ignore the headline noise; the leak is the real story—and it's about to hit you in the wallet and the voting booth.