Biden vs. Trump: The Border Numbers Show a Historic Collapse in Illegal Crossings

The debate over the southern border is filled with enormous numbers: 7 million, 10 million, 11 million, sometimes even more.

But those figures are often describing different things.

When comparing the Biden administration with President Donald Trump’s second term, the most useful measure of illegal border crossings is U.S. Border Patrol encounters between official ports of entry along the Southwest border.

That is different from CBP’s broader “Southwest border encounters” figure, which also includes people who present themselves at legal ports of entry.

And by that apples-to-apples measure, the difference between the two administrations is extraordinary.

At the height of the Biden-era surge in December 2023, Border Patrol recorded 249,785 encounters between ports of entry along the Southwest border — more than 8,000 per day on average.

By July 2026, Border Patrol apprehensions along the Southwest border had fallen to 9,295 for the entire month, according to CBP figures released in August. That works out to roughly 300 per day.

That represents a decline of approximately 96.3% from the December 2023 peak.

The Biden-era surge

The change is easiest to see in the fiscal-year numbers.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data compiled by Pew Research Center, Border Patrol recorded the following encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border:

Fiscal year 2022 reached 2.206 million, the highest annual total in the series. Fiscal year 2023 remained above 2 million, followed by approximately 1.53 million in FY2024.

By contrast, FY2025 recorded just 237,538 encounters — the lowest fiscal-year total since 1970.

There is an important qualification, however.

Fiscal years do not line up with presidential terms. FY2025 began on October 1, 2024, meaning nearly four months of that fiscal year occurred while Joe Biden was still president.

Border crossings were considerably higher during those final Biden months than after Trump took office on January 20, 2025.

December 2023: nearly a quarter-million illegal crossings in one month

The scale of the Biden-era peak is difficult to appreciate until the monthly numbers are examined.

In December 2023:

249,785 people were encountered by Border Patrol between ports of entry along the Southwest border.

Total CBP Southwest border encounters — including encounters at legal ports of entry — were even higher, at 302,034.

Those are two different measurements.

The 249,785 figure is the better statistic when discussing migrants caught after entering between official ports of entry.

The 302,034 figure includes those migrants plus people encountered at official ports of entry.

This distinction matters because political claims frequently use the larger encounter number and describe every encounter as an illegal crossing.

That is not technically accurate.

Biden's border numbers began falling before Trump returned

The enormous decline did not begin on January 20, 2025.

That fact deserves to be included in any serious comparison.

President Biden issued a border proclamation in June 2024 restricting asylum eligibility when illegal crossings were elevated. DHS later said the action resulted in illegal crossings falling by more than 55%, and by the end of the administration DHS said encounters between ports of entry had fallen more than 60% from the level preceding the June proclamation.

The monthly data demonstrates that decline.

Border Patrol recorded:

May 2024: 117,905
June 2024: 83,532
July 2024: 56,400
August 2024: 58,009
September 2024: 53,858
October 2024: 56,515
November 2024: 46,609
December 2024: 47,320

The Biden administration therefore brought illegal-crossing encounters down substantially during its final seven months.

From 117,905 in May 2024 to 47,320 in December 2024, the decrease was approximately 59.9%.

Mexico's stepped-up immigration enforcement also contributed to the decline, according to Pew's analysis of the migration trend.

That is an important part of the story.

But it is not where the decline stopped.

Then the numbers collapsed again under Trump

Trump returned to office on January 20, 2025.

January 2025 — a month divided between the two administrations — recorded 29,105 Border Patrol encounters at the Southwest border.

Then came the first full months of Trump's second administration:

February 2025: 8,349
March 2025: 7,179
April 2025: 8,376
May 2025: 8,724
June 2025: 6,066
July 2025: roughly 4,600

Pew found that beginning with Trump's first full month back in office, Border Patrol recorded fewer than 10,000 Southwest border encounters every month through the end of 2025 — levels below even the early COVID-era lows.

The White House reported approximately 4,598 illegal-crossing arrests in July 2025, an average of about 148 per day.

The decline has persisted into 2026

This was not simply a one- or two-month drop following the presidential transition.

In June 2026, Border Patrol apprehended 9,848 people attempting to cross illegally along the Southwest border, according to CBP data reviewed by FactCheck.org.

In July 2026, the number declined slightly to 9,295.

FactCheck.org calculated that during the most recent 12-month period available through June 2026, Border Patrol recorded 90,875 apprehensions of migrants attempting to cross the southern border illegally.

That was approximately 91% lower than the comparable final 12-month period under Biden.

That may be the cleanest apples-to-apples statistic in the entire comparison:

Approximately 91% fewer illegal-crossing apprehensions over a comparable 12-month period.

From 249,785 to 9,295

Another way of visualizing the magnitude is to compare the Biden-era monthly peak with July 2026.

December 2023: 249,785

July 2026: 9,295

Difference: 240,490 fewer monthly apprehensions

Percentage reduction: approximately 96.3%

December 2023 averaged approximately 8,058 apprehensions per day.

July 2026 averaged approximately 300 per day.

In other words, Border Patrol was sometimes processing nearly as many illegal crossers in one day during the Biden-era peak as it now encounters across much of an entire month.

What did Trump change?

Trump's return to office brought an immediate change in immigration enforcement philosophy.

On January 20, 2025, Trump issued a proclamation suspending the entry of migrants he described as participating in the unlawful mass migration occurring at the southern border and restricting their ability to invoke provisions allowing them to remain in the United States.

The administration also ended the Biden-era CBP One appointment system used by migrants seeking entry at ports of entry, increased detention and removal efforts, expanded the use of federal resources at the border and sought to make release into the U.S. interior much less common.

That last difference may be one of the most important.

During May 2024, approximately 62,000 migrants apprehended at the border were released into the United States, according to figures cited by the Trump White House.

By May 2025, Border Patrol reported zero releases into the interior for the month.

By July 2026, CBP reported that the Southwest border had recorded 15 consecutive months with zero Border Patrol releases.

The practical deterrent is significant.

For a potential migrant deciding whether to pay a smuggler and make the journey north, there is an enormous difference between believing that apprehension may result in release into the United States while an immigration case proceeds and believing that apprehension is likely to result in detention and removal.

Migration decisions are affected by many other forces — economic conditions, violence and political instability in migrants' home countries, Mexican enforcement, smuggling organizations and U.S. labor demand among them.

But the additional collapse after January 2025 coincided closely with the Trump administration's enforcement changes.

What about “gotaways”?

Apprehensions do not represent everyone who crosses the border.

A gotaway is generally a migrant who Border Patrol has evidence crossed illegally but whom agents were unable to apprehend.

Gotaway estimates became another major concern during the Biden-era surge because an overwhelmed Border Patrol could be forced to move agents away from patrol duties to process large groups who had surrendered.

The figure is inherently less precise than apprehensions because the government cannot count a person it never detects.

That means even official “known gotaway” totals should not be confused with an exact measurement of every person who successfully entered the country illegally.

Trump administration officials have also reported sharp declines in known gotaways during the current administration. In June 2025, the White House said gotaways had fallen approximately 90% from the same month one year earlier.

Why claims of “10 million illegal immigrants crossing under Biden” need context

This is where political arguments often become statistically sloppy.

During Biden's presidency, there were millions of Border Patrol encounters between ports of entry.

There were also millions of broader CBP encounters, which include people appearing at ports of entry.

There were known gotaways.

And there were repeat encounters involving the same migrants.

Those numbers cannot simply be added together and described as the number of unique illegal immigrants who entered the United States and remained here.

Border Patrol encounter statistics measure events, not necessarily unique individuals. Some migrants are apprehended more than once after attempting to cross repeatedly.

Some people encountered at the border were expelled, returned or removed.

Others were released or paroled into the United States while immigration proceedings continued.

And people encountered legally at ports of entry should not automatically be counted as having crossed the border illegally.

That does not diminish the historic scale of the Biden-era border surge. It simply means the statistics should be reported accurately.

Three distinct phases emerge from the data

Looking at the full record, the border story since 2021 can essentially be divided into three periods.

2021 through 2023: Illegal border-crossing encounters surged to historic levels, surpassing 2 million annually in FY2022 and FY2023 and reaching nearly 250,000 in a single month in December 2023.

June 2024 through January 2025: Biden imposed significantly tougher asylum restrictions while Mexico increased enforcement. Border Patrol encounters between ports of entry fell by roughly 60% from May through December 2024.

February 2025 through July 2026: Trump's enforcement policies coincided with another massive decline. Monthly illegal-crossing apprehensions largely remained below 10,000, and comparable 12-month apprehensions were approximately 91% below the final comparable Biden period.

The bottom line

The available federal data leaves little room for dispute about the direction of illegal border crossings.

Illegal crossings were extraordinarily high for much of the Biden administration.

They began dropping sharply during Biden's final months after his administration imposed tougher asylum restrictions and Mexico intensified immigration enforcement.

But after Trump returned to office, crossings fell dramatically again — from tens of thousands per month to only several thousand — and remained near historically low levels through the summer of 2026.

At the Biden-era monthly peak:

249,785 Southwest Border Patrol encounters between ports of entry.

In July 2026:

9,295.

That's a decline of approximately 96%.

And over the most recent comparable 12-month period, apprehensions were approximately 91% lower than during the final comparable 12-month period under Biden.

Whatever one's position on immigration policy, those are not marginal differences.

They represent one of the most dramatic shifts in illegal border-crossing activity recorded in modern U.S. border statistics.

Methodology note: Freedom News Media uses U.S. Border Patrol encounters between official ports of entry along the Southwest border as the primary proxy for illegal border crossings. Encounter statistics represent enforcement events rather than necessarily unique individuals. Broader CBP Southwest border encounter figures also include encounters at legal ports of entry and should not be treated as synonymous with illegal crossings.