Zero illegal immigrants have been released into the United States in the past four consecutive months, according to data released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). At the same time, a record number of illegal immigrants have exited the United States.
“American people are safer, the border is sealed, and President Donald Trump and [DHS] Secretary Kristi Noem are making America secure again in record time,” DHS said in a statement.
DHS data show that daily encounters with people crossing into the country unlawfully dropped by 93 percent, while daily apprehensions dropped by 96 percent since January.
The flow of migrants making their way to the United States from Central America has also dropped by 97 percent, according to the agency, which oversees Customs and Border Protection.
“We have the most secure border in our nation’s history,” Noem said during a press conference last month at the border wall in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. “We had 1.6 million illegal aliens that have gone home voluntarily.”
Since January, the department has taken 422,000 illegal immigrants into custody, it stated. And 70 percent of those arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have pending criminal charges or criminal convictions.
“It destroys countries from within, and we’re actually now removing people that came into our country,” Trump said.
“From millions of people a year ago, we had zero people entering our country illegally,” he said. “We’re actually now removing a lot of the people that came into our country illegally.
Trump made mass deportations a key part of his campaign to win a second term, as almost 11 million illegal immigrants entered the country from fiscal years 2021 to 2024 (from Oct. 1 to Sept. 31 of the following year) under the Biden administration.
Opponents of Trump’s immigration policy say the administration is not following due process before removing illegal immigrants, a claim the administration denies.
Since January, the overall foreign-born population in the United States has fallen by 2.2 million, and 2.5 million American-born workers have entered the workforce, according to DHS.
“Noncitizens who match to a terrorism-related record that are encountered by the CBP Office of Field Operations at land ports of entry are most commonly found inadmissible to our country and immediately repatriated or removed,” CBP stated on its website.
During the same period, Border Patrol agents arrested 61 people on a terrorism watchlist who crossed the southern border illegally.
The department has increased its manpower through agreements between ICE and state and local law enforcement, known as 287(g) agreements.
ICE agents have been doxed and increasingly targeted by violent demonstrators, particularly in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
During Noem’s first seven months in her role, DHS reported saving taxpayers $13.2 billion by reducing grant contracts and cutting 8 percent of non-law enforcement personnel.
