The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Wednesday that it has been described as a historic success in curbing illegal border crossings that declared 2025 the safest on record.
According to DHS, the number of border patrol encounters between ports of entry in June fell to around 84,000. This is the lowest monthly fee since January 2021.
Sectoral officials said the figures reflect a sustained decline, marking June’s three-month consecutive year of the lowest third quarter since President Biden’s inauguration.
The agency attributes the decline to a combination of aggressive enforcement actions, international cooperation and increased use of legal immigration routes. In particular, DHS pointed to more than 600,000 individual enforcement measures taken over the past year. This includes both deportation and removal. This exceeds any fiscal year since 2010. This includes the removal of more than 120,000 individuals from the US border since May 2023.
“This administration has eliminated more individual immigrants than any other year since 2010, and has also set records of drug attacks, employer sanctions and international law enforcement cooperation,” said DHS Executive Director Alejandro Mayorkas.
The department also noted that the legal transition has increased significantly through programs such as the CBP One Mobile app. The CBPOne Mobile app has processed over 636,000 pre-orders on the entry port since its launch. Meanwhile, parole programs for nationals in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela promote more than 500,000 legal entries, with DHS strongly cited a compliance rate of 99.7% among participants.
The DHS emphasized that much of its success was also due to widening agreements with countries throughout the Western Hemisphere. These partnerships allowed the repatriation of migrants to many countries that resisted the deportation of migrants being previously ousted. Currently, nearly 40 countries, including Venezuela, have received US repatriation flights.
The announcement comes as the Biden administration faces more pressure from both sides of the aisle than immigration policies. Republicans have criticised what they call loose enforcement, but Wednesday’s figures could bolster the administration’s debate that they brought order to the border through a mix of policy reform and bilateral agreements.
Mallorcas acknowledged that challenges remain, including the lack of parliamentary action on immigration reform. Still, he called the record setting number “proof that our strategy is working,” urging lawmakers to provide the DHS with the tools and resources they need to maintain their efforts.
“We will continue to call Congress to fix the broken system,” Mallorkas said. “But we are making real progress in the face of inaction.”
