‘Encounters’ at U.S.-Mexico border at lowest level in more than 50 years

An analysis of federal data by Pew Research reveals the extent of President Donald Trump’s victory in his battle against border and immigration law violations.

That issue has been one of Trump’s key agenda points, and he issued executive orders on his first day in office to start the process of tracking down illegal aliens, including criminals and terrorists, and moving them out of the country.

His agenda even has included incentives for illegals to self-deport, and tens of thousands have.

The Pew analysis confirms that “U.S. Border Patrol encounters with migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico have fallen to their lowest level in more than 50 years.”

“The Border Patrol recorded 237,538 encounters with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2025 fiscal year, which began in October 2024 and ended in September 2025. That was down from more than 1.5 million encounters in fiscal 2024, more than 2 million in fiscal 2023 and a record of more than 2.2 million in fiscal 2022. The 2025 total was the lowest in any fiscal year since 1970, according to historical data from the Border Patrol,” Pew confirmed.

The analysis notes that “encounters” refers mainly to Border Patrol apprehensions of migrants crossing into the U.S. between official points of entry.

“It refers to events, not people. Border Patrol agents may encounter some migrants more than once – or example, if a migrant is apprehended and deported but tries to enter the U.S. again,” the report said.

The decline began under Joe Biden’s tenure, when his presidency was reaching its closing months and the problems created during his first years in office – literally millions and millions of illegal aliens including criminals and terrorists allowed into the country through an open door – became evident. In fact, a Pew graphic shows sky-high encounters during Biden’s years in office, a total that plunged to just a fraction when Trump took office.

During Biden’s last few months then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador agreed to step up immigration enforcement, reducing migrant flows into America.

Later, Biden announced restrictions on migrants seeking asylums, another move that helped.

Then, when Trump took office, things changed quickly.

“Immediately after returning to office in January 2025, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the southwestern border and directed the U.S. military to assist with border security. The administration also shut down a Biden-era app that had allowed migrants to apply for asylum,” the report said.

“The Trump administration has increased arrests and deportations of migrants from the interior of the U.S., potentially deterring new migrant arrivals at the border,” it added.

The analysis said, “While annual statistics show a huge decline in migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2025 fiscal year, these numbers understate the decrease that has occurred since Trump’s second term began on Jan. 20, 2025.”

Again a Pew graph shows record encounters during Biden’s term, which fell off a cliff when Trump took office.

“Since February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s current term, the Border Patrol has recorded fewer than 10,000 encounters a month at the southwestern border. Those are the lowest totals in more than 25 years of available monthly data. Recent totals have been even lower than the 16,182 encounters in April 2020, when international migration plummeted in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic,” Pew reported.