Border Apprehensions Hit Lowest Level in Border Patrol History, With Zero Releases

Written By TNT Staff, Posted on October 25, 2026

Featured photo: U.S. Border Patrol agents on watch at the border fence line in Arizona. Photo: CBP Photography, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

President Trump promised to close the southern border. Federal data now show he did.

The U.S. Border Patrol recorded 98,708 apprehensions at the southwest border in fiscal year 2026, the lowest total in the agency’s history, according to preliminary figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP says it was also the first fiscal year ever in which the Border Patrol released no one into the country. September was the 17th straight month with zero releases.

The figures were released Oct. 16. They are circulating again this weekend, with the Nov. 3 midterms nine days away.

The numbers

CBP puts the FY2026 total at a 95% decline from the Biden years, when southwest border apprehensions ran at more than 1.8 million a year. CBP’s own Southwest Land Border Encounters data bear that out. (For FY2021 through FY2023, those counts include Title 42 public-health expulsions alongside regular Title 8 apprehensions, which CBP tracks together.) Border Patrol apprehensions there were about 1.66 million in FY2021, 2.21 million in FY2022, 2.05 million in FY2023 and 1.53 million in FY2024. That works out to roughly 1.86 million a year.

One comparison stands out. In December 2023, the Border Patrol made 249,740 southwest border apprehensions in a single month. The whole of FY2026 came in 60% below that one month, CBP says.

Nationwide, CBP counted 379,243 total encounters in FY2026, also an agency low. That compares with about 2.7 million a year under Biden and is 88% below FY2023, the highest year on record.

What changed

“President Trump promised the American people a secure border, and the data proves he delivered,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in the release. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott credited “focused enforcement, strong partnerships, and the commitment of our frontline personnel.”

The release also says CBP has completed 250 miles of new barrier along the southwest border since Jan. 20, 2025, and obligated $34.3 billion for “Smart Wall” projects from September 2025 through September 2026. CBP says drug seizures reached nearly 1 million pounds, 63% above the four-year average. It also says border-related deaths identified by the Border Patrol fell nearly 80% compared with the Biden years.

Why it matters

For four years, Washington insisted the border could not be controlled without a sweeping “comprehensive” bill. Apprehensions are a measure of how many people try to cross and get caught, not a perfect count of everyone who gets in. But a drop from roughly 2 million a year to under 100,000, with no releases, is not a rounding error. It shows the old crisis was a policy choice, and so was ending it.

Enforcing the law already on the books is the classical liberal answer: a government that keeps its basic promises to its own citizens. With voters heading to the polls Nov. 3, this is one promise kept that can be checked against the government’s own numbers.

The FY2026 figures are preliminary, and CBP may revise them when final data are posted.

TNT Staff