Illegal border crossings in the Del Rio Border Patrol Sector, once a hotbed of unlawful migration in Texas, have plummeted nearly 40% in just the first full week of President Donald Trump’s return to office. This sharp decline is being mirrored across the southwest border as Trump’s promised crackdown on illegal immigration quickly moves from campaign rhetoric to real-world enforcement. The shift comes as a welcome relief to Border Patrol agents who, after years of playing the role of an overwhelmed processing service under the Biden administration, are now back to actually securing the border.
Adding to the turnaround, the number of suspected got-aways—migrants who evade capture—dropped by more than 60% in the Del Rio Sector, from 229 to just 82 in the week following Trump’s inauguration. The trend extends to the Texas Rio Grande Valley, where daily migrant apprehensions during the weekend before Trump took office fell to a mere 211—down from 1,154 in the same period the week prior. Even got-away numbers in that region shrank nearly 40%. With Border Patrol agents shifting from the previous administration’s “catch and release” policy to an actual “arrest and deport” model, the difference in enforcement is stark. Meanwhile, in California’s San Diego Sector, illegal migrants are no longer being released en masse into the country. Instead, they are now being flown to different border locations via military aircraft for repatriation—yet another contrast to the Biden-era free-for-all.
Some of the most dramatic reversals involve migrants from the People’s Republic of China. Under the Biden administration, nearly 700 Chinese nationals were apprehended in the San Diego region in a single week in April 2024, only to be swiftly released into the U.S. under dubious asylum claims. Now, thanks to Trump’s tougher policies, those same migrants are being sent back to Mexico at the time of apprehension, cutting off yet another exploited loophole in the immigration system. Meanwhile, in Arizona’s Tucson Sector, Border Patrol agents, working alongside the Sonoran Border Unit and the Foreign Operations Branch, dismantled a cartel-run scout camp used to monitor law enforcement movements and facilitate smuggling. The joint operation led to multiple cartel arrests and the seizure of surveillance devices designed to aid the trafficking of drugs and people across the border.
This drastic reduction in illegal crossings is giving Border Patrol agents something they haven’t had in years: the ability to actively patrol remote areas that had been abandoned under Biden’s disastrous immigration policies. With fewer resources tied up in processing and releasing migrants, agents are now redeploying into the rugged terrain where smugglers once operated with impunity. The new administration’s enforcement-first approach is already proving effective, showing that when illegal crossings are no longer rewarded with a free ticket into the country, the numbers start dropping fast.
For those who spent the last four years watching the border descend into chaos, these early results are a strong indication that Trump is delivering on his promise to restore order. While critics will undoubtedly try to spin this crackdown as harsh or inhumane, the reality is that it’s simply enforcing the law—something the previous administration seemed uninterested in doing. If the first week of Trump’s return is any indication, the days of open-border policies are quickly coming to an end.
