Open borders policies pushed by Democrats over the last decade had become so commonplace that politicians who stood against these policies were considered unelectable. But President Donald Trump ran — and won twice — on a promise to make the country safer and enforce the rule of law, and the Trump administration is delivering on that.
President Trump and conservative allies in Congress are continuing to deliver on securing the southern border, deporting illegal immigrants, seizing illegal substances, and ending taxpayer benefits for non-citizens.
During President Trump’s second term, the foreign-born population has plummeted by a record 2.9 million, according to an analysis conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). CIS estimates that the illegal immigrant population has fallen by a startling 2.3 million.
This comes after the foreign-born population ballooned under former President Joe Biden. Under Biden, the foreign-born population increased by 8.3 million, the largest increase in any four-year period in American history, according to CIS.
The White House also reported in October that close to 1.2 million illegal aliens have been deported or removed, and there have been close to 1.3 million illegal alien arrests.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has also recorded the lowest level of illegal border crossings in U.S. history in FY 2026 under President Trump, a 95 percent plummet from Biden-era levels.
In an Oct. 16 memo, DHS announced there have been fewer than 99,000 arrests at the southern border in FY 2026, a 95 percent decline from the over 1.8 million crossings annually under President Biden.
The data also shows that deaths at the southern border, a tragedy which escalated under the open borders policies that allowed an unprecedented flood of migrants to enter the United States illegally under President Biden, are down significantly under President Trump. DHS reports that preliminary data for FY 2026 show illegal alien deaths of which Border Patrol became aware have fallen nearly 80 percent compared to under the Biden administration.
DHS attributes part of this decline in loss of life to a stronger border — with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) successfully installing 250 miles of new border wall on the southwest border since January 20, 2025. The Trump Administration is also investing in border patrolling technology, with $34.3 billion invested in technology to enforce border security from September 2025 through September 2026.
CBP is also seizing illicit drugs and imported materials that are suspected of being tied to forced labor. Agents secured close to a million pounds of illegal drugs tied to border traffic in FY 2026, a 63 percent increase compared to the average seized over the previous four years.
As for putting a stop to forced labor, CBP halted over $325 million worth of goods that were suspected of being produced using forced labor and seized over $12.6 billion worth of counterfeit materials in FY 2026.
President Trump has also taken steps to prevent non-citizens from accessing U.S. taxpayer-funded benefits, including banning illegal immigrants and green card holders from accessing Small Business Administration loans and banning illegal aliens from public healthcare programs.
The Trump administration is doing what President Trump promised in 2024: securing the border, protecting citizens and taxpayers, making the U.S. a less desirable location for illegal aliens, encouraging self-deportation, and deporting criminals.
Then-candidate Trump forced the issue of illegal immigration into the spotlight in 2015, and in his second term has orchestrated a historic turnaround in the number of illegal aliens entering the U.S. The Administration is continuing to bolster border security and stem the flow of illegal substances across the border.
Surprisingly, the FBI reported in August that crime numbers are reaching historic lows, with the murder rate in 2025 falling to 4.1 per 100,000 individuals, a number not seen since the 1950s and the lowest since the FBI began recording national crime data. While a number of Trump policies have contributed to the startling decline in national crime rates, the president’s commitment to border security is one of those policies. Reversing the failed open borders policies of the previous administration and left-wing Democrats will go down in history as one of the most powerful course corrections for the country.
Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
