Southwest land border encounters dropped to 11,709 in 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.
