President Donald Trump’s overall approval rating took a hit this month, but one area where the President’s efforts have paid off already is his massive turnaround of the illegal immigration crisis. With illegal border encounters at their lowest number since the 1970’s according to the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection data Americans have a lot to celebrate, and President Trump to thank for a significantly more secure country.
President Trump’s refusal to accept a porous border open border and move to deport illegal criminals is his most popular policy to voters. In the latest Cygnal survey from Nov. 5-6, voters strongly credit Trump for his work to quell the illegal immigrant crisis, support deportation, and say immigration is being resolved but needs more work to be completely solved.  Â
Nearly 70 percent of Americans give President Trump at least some credit for securing the southern border, while just 26.3 percent say President Trump gets no credit for securing the border. Nearly half of Americans (49.9 percent) say President Trump gets all, most, or a lot of the credit for securing the border, while 19.8 percent say he gets some or a little credit. Â
Americans also largely support President Trump’s deportation policy for illegals according to the survey, with Americans saying by 24.7 points they support the deportation of illegals, 60.2 percent to 35.5 percent. Â
While voters credit President Trump for taking the illegal immigrant crisis seriously and acting to secure the border, the largest share of voters (54.7 percent) say the issue of illegal immigration still needs attention before it is completely solved.
Under President Trump, new data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) highlighted by the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security in September shows that illegal border encounters are at a 50-year-low, proving Trump’s strong border security presence is working to deter illegal crossings.
CBP reports that nationwide illegal border encounters on both the northern and southern borders plummeted from 144,666 encounters in September 2024 to 26,002 in September 2025, an 82 percent decrease. Most recently, on the southwest border there were just 11,710 encounters in October, an 88.9 percent decrease from the 106,316Â seen in October 2024, according to the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
For FY2025 as a whole, illegal Southwest border encounters are down 79 percent compared to the previous year under the Joe Biden Administration, hitting the lowest number on record since 1970. Nationwide encounters are also down 76 percent compared to the previous year.Â
The CBP also reports that unlike under the Joe Biden administration, zero inadmissible illegal aliens were released into American communities in September of this year, down from close to 10,000 in September 2024 under Joe Biden.
President Donald Trump has successfully halted the tidal wave of illegal immigration into the country, making cities safer and discouraging the illegal trafficking of people and substances over the Southern border.
A few years ago, reducing the number of illegals entering the United States to numbers we haven’t seen since the 1970’s was considered politically impossible. However, President Trump ran on securing the border, and he is well on his way to delivering it and did the impossible with the lowest numbers of illegals entering the county in the modern era.
Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
