FY 2026 Starts with “Most Secure Border Ever,” Lowest Illegal Crossings in History

When it comes to border security, fiscal year 2026 got off to a remarkable start with the lowest illegal crossings in October in history, according to preliminary figures released by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) frontline border agency. It is welcome news after a record-breaking 7.6 million illegal aliens entered the country under Biden, including hundreds of thousands with serious criminal records and over 1.7 million from countries DHS says pose a national security threat to the U.S. Classified as Special Interest Aliens (SIA) by the government, the migrants that pose a security threat came from some 26 nations, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Syria, and Turkey, China, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela. Many SIAs—including some on the U.S. terrorist watchlist—were released inside the country under Biden, risking public safety and national security.

The Trump administration hit the ground running by quickly securing the once porous southern border and apprehending thousands of criminal aliens nationwide to mitigate an unprecedented immigration crisis that gripped the nation and devastated American towns along the Mexican border under Biden. Almost immediately after President Trump’s inauguration the bleeding stopped with illegal crossings plummeting by more than a third in January and a 93% decline in migrants apprehended at ports of entry after Jan. 20. By the summer the numbers were consistently at all-time lows with an average of just 148 daily illegal crossings in June and only 4,598 illegal immigrants arrested by the Border Patrol in July, marking a stunning 92% decrease from July 2024 (56,400) under Biden. DHS celebrated that apprehensions along the Southwest border for the entire month of July were lower than the daily average under the Biden administration. Another important fact the agency revealed is that no illegal immigrants were released inside the U.S.

The crackdown continues into the 2026 fiscal year, which began on October 1. Not only did CBP record the lowest crossings in agency history, but October also marked the sixth consecutive month that it released zero illegal aliens inside the U.S. CBP had 30,561 total encounters nationwide, marking a 79% decrease from October 2024. Since Jan. 21 through the end of October, there have been 106,134 total enforcement encounters along the Southwest Border— less than the Biden administration’s monthly average of 155,485 encounters. Daily average apprehensions have also plummeted an incredible 95% to 258 compared to 5,110 under Biden. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem touts it as the “most secure border ever” and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott assures that his agency is “not easing up” but rather “pushing even harder.” Afterall, Scott reminds, that his agency’s mission is to secure the border and safeguard the nation without the excuses and politics used under Biden and his disastrous border czar, Kamala Harris.

DHS is also cleaning up a huge mess inside the country, conducting regular operations that target criminal aliens with serious records released—rather than deported—under Biden. Judicial Watch has reported extensively on the initiative which has been ignored by the mainstream media and led to the arrest of dozens of murderers, rapists, drug traffickers, gang members, and child sex predators welcomed into the United States or released from local jails under the previous administration and by local governments that offer illegal aliens sanctuary. During a recent operation over 1,400 criminal aliens were arrested in just three weeks in Massachusetts, a state that has long offered illegal immigrants sanctuary and forbids local law enforcement agencies from assisting or cooperating with federal immigration authorities. More than 600 of the migrants arrested had significant criminal convictions or criminal charges for crimes committed in the U.S. or are known foreign fugitives. Some are members of the famously violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Tren de Aragua and 18th Street gangs.

In Houston thousands of criminal aliens have been apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) In the last few months in separate operations, ridding Texas’s largest city of a multitude of violent gang members, convicted murderers, child predators, and other egregious criminals. In the most recent Houston sting, ICE arrested more than 1,500 criminal aliens, including gang members, foreign fugitives and other serious offenders during a 10-day operation. The 1,505 arrests in just 10 days nearly doubled the number of apprehensions made by the ICE Houston Field Office during two separate operations earlier in the year that caught 822 and 543 criminal aliens. Offenders include sexual predators, gang members, aggravated felons, burglars and over 140 guilty of driving while intoxicated.