The Trump administration has gone four straight months without paroling a single illegal migrant into the country as the southern border remains historically quiet.
Border Patrol agents made 6,319 apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border during August, resulting in an average of just 204 arrests per day, according to the latest figures released by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Slightly under 26,200 border encounters were made nationwide during the entire month, a figure that is 93% lower than the monthly national average during the Biden administration era.
The low border numbers in August resulted in no need for “parole,” in which illegal migrants are caught by border agents and then quickly released from custody when detention centers are too overcrowded. The Trump administration has boasted of zero parole releases in May, June, July and August.
“This is unprecedented in history,” Ammon Blair, a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation who spent over a decade working as a Border Patrol agent, said to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Given what’s happening around the world right now, you’re seeing more incursions into England than you are into the United States. That’s insane.”
“There are a few things that we need to correct, especially in terms of asylum and asylum loopholes,” Blair added. “However, as you can see, all we have to do is adhere to our current law, especially at the border.”
The current situation marks a far cry from the peak of the border crisis under President Joe Biden, which experienced tens of thousands of illegal migrants released every month. Border Patrol agents were forced to release roughly 62,000 migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in May 2024 and another 27,766 in June 2024 under the last administration, according to CBP.
The sharp turnaround began soon after President Donald Trump started work on several initiatives aimed at reducing illegal immigration and tightening border security.
The president signed a flurry of executive orders immediately after returning to the White House, such as a national emergency declaration that allowed him to divert more military resources to the U.S.-Mexico border and resume wall construction. Trump also designated drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, paused refugee admissions and has attempted to end birthright citizenship for individuals born on U.S. soil to illegal migrant parents.
The president also successfully coerced both the Canadian and Mexican governments to do more to bolster border security, including a commitment of 10,000 National Guard troops by leftist Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to help stop the flow of illegal immigration and illicit drugs.
“The border remains closed. There is no “new” asylum program, no work permits, no temporary status being given,” Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks said in a previous public statement.
“If you are encountered entering illegally by a Border Patrol agent, you will be arrested and prosecuted before being deported from the U.S.,” Banks continued.
While the border has become quiet, the Trump administration has stepped up enforcement in the interior of the country.
Department of Homeland Security officials have arrested more than 417,000 illegal migrants since late January, an official shared Thursday with the Daily Caller. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents alone have arrested more than 210,000 of them, 70% of which are criminal illegal aliens with pending charges or convictions.
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