Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy refused to acknowledge on NBC News Sunday any positive impact from President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, despite record-low border crossings.
In May 2025, U.S. Border Patrol encountered about 8,725 illegal crossings, a 93% decrease from the 117,905 encounters in May 2024. During an appearance on “Meet The Press,” host Kristen Welker asked Murphy about the decline in border crossings with Murphy insisting that the drop was the result of the Trump administration’s alleged illegal actions rather than effective policy.
“I don’t give them credit for that because border crossings are low because they’re violating the law every day. So we have a law in this country that says if you are fleeing terror or torture from another country, you can come here and apply for asylum,” Murphy said.
Murphy claimed that the president suspended the asylum process altogether, preventing individuals from seeking refuge as prescribed by U.S. law. He also pointed to bipartisan legislative efforts from 2024 at reforming the asylum process to ensure that only those who qualify are allowed to apply while expediting the review of asylum cases at the border.
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“The Trump administration has suspended that law. They are not allowing anybody to come here to apply for asylum. We wrote that bipartisan bill last year to reform the asylum process, to make sure that only the right people are coming in and that we judge those cases expeditiously at the border,” Murphy noted.
In 2024, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill to reform the asylum process, aiming to streamline procedures while ensuring protections for those fleeing persecution.
“It’s true, there are very few people crossing on a daily basis, but that’s because the Trump administration is violating the law. And it should matter to every American that on so many facets, the Trump administration doesn’t care about the law,” Murphy said. “This is becoming a lawless administration. We are on a road to see our democracy after feats of the point that it will be unrecognizable. And the border is just one example of many ways in which this administration doesn’t care about the law anymore.”
Upon returning to the White House, Trump wasted no time implementing a series of executive actions and administrative reforms to secure the southern border. These included declaring a national emergency, prioritizing wall construction, pressuring the Mexican government to deploy its own law enforcement and issuing numerous other directives.
The decline in illegal immigration stands in contrast to the Biden administration’s tenure, which experienced the worst border crisis in U.S. history. This crisis followed several actions taken by the Biden administration to dismantle border security measures established during Trump’s first term.
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