Southwest land border encounters dropped to 11,709 in the February, the first full month of President Donald Trump’s tenure in office, according to data gathered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the lowest ever on record in data dating all the way back to 2000. Compared to one year ago, in Feb. 2024 it was 189,913, down to 11,709, a 93.8 percent decrease in border encounters — showing that President Donald Trump’s decision to immediately deploy the U.S. military to the southern border is having the effect that he was hoping to server as a deterrent and as construction has resumed on the southern border wall that former President Joe Biden left incomplete. A part of the success is also undoubtedly President Trump’s threatened 25 percent tariff on Mexico — an ultimatum leveled before he even took office — that has resulted in Mexico putting 10,000 of its own troops on the U.S.-Mexican border as well. Trump still says there’s more work to be done to keep fentanyl from flowing into the U.S. from both Mexico and Canada, and he paused imposition of the 25 percent tariff on cars from both countries until April but are set to go into effect. President Trump declared a national border emergency on Jan. 20 under the National Emergencies Act. And Trump said the national border emergency requires the use of the military under 10 U.S. Code Sec. 12302. And, like in 2019, Trump is using the emergency to finish construction of the southern border wall under 50 U.S. Code Sec. 1631 and 10 U.S. Code. Sec. 2808. In addition, President Trump declared Tren de Aragua and other drug cartels as terrorist organizations on Jan. 20 by executive order in accordance with 8 U.S. Code Sec. 1189. And on March 15, Trump issued a proclamation invoking the 1798 Alien Enemy Act that the international criminal organization Tren de Aragua, supported by Venezuela, is a “hybrid criminal state”. All this in just two months in office and the results speak for themselves. The contrast from the prior administration of former President Joe Biden is simply stunning, combining data from both the United States Border Patrol encounters and the Office of Field Operations inadmissibles by the Office of Immigration Statistics, there were some 10.8 million border encounters all told from January 2021 to November 2024. It’s almost as if border security were simply a matter of political will — of which Trump appears to have an ample supply.
