The Department of Homeland Security announced Friday that the 2026 fiscal year produced the fewest border crossings in American history. Border Patrol made 98,708 apprehensions at the southwest border between Oct. 1, 2025, and Sept. 30, 2026. That is about 95% below the roughly 1.8 million a year recorded under President Biden.
For the first time, Border Patrol went an entire fiscal year without releasing a single migrant into the country. September marked the 17th straight month of zero releases.
“President Trump promised the American people a secure border, and the data proves he delivered,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said, according to the department’s release as reported by RedState and Breitbart.
The numbers that matter
DHS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection released a long list of preliminary figures. The headline numbers:
- 98,708 southwest border apprehensions in fiscal 2026, the lowest in agency history.
- 379,243 total encounters nationwide, also an all-time low. That is 88% below fiscal 2023, the busiest year on record.
- Zero Border Patrol releases for the full year.
- 250 miles of new border barrier completed since Jan. 20, 2025.
- Nearly 1 million pounds of drugs seized, 63% above the roughly 600,000-pound yearly average of the previous four years.
To put the year in perspective, Breitbart noted that the entire 12-month total came in 60% below a single month under Biden. In December 2023, Border Patrol recorded 249,740 apprehensions. By the end of fiscal 2026, the monthly figure had fallen to about 8,900.
Mullin said CBP “recorded its lowest numbers in American history” over the past year. He added: “The results could not be clearer: strong enforcement works.”
Fewer deaths, more drugs stopped
The drop in crossings came with a human benefit. DHS said migrant deaths identified by Border Patrol fell nearly 80% compared with the Biden years, according to Voz.us, which reviewed the release. Every person who doesn’t attempt the dangerous trek is one fewer life at risk.
CBP officers at ports of entry also responded to more than 3,000 medical emergencies and performed CPR on more than 50 people in cardiac arrest, the agency said.
On trade, CBP said it stopped more than 4,000 shipments worth over $325 million on suspicion of links to forced labor. Officers also seized about 55.5 million counterfeit products valued at more than $12.6 billion. That included 476,903 knockoff items tied to the FIFA World Cup.
CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said his agency and DHS “are securing the border, stopping dangerous drugs and criminals.”
The wall is going up
The administration has put real money behind the barrier. CBP committed $34.3 billion to its “Smart Wall” projects in the border states between September 2025 and September 2026, according to the release.
Fox News reported in September that work had begun on a section of 30-foot steel bollard wall in Arizona. When the Tohono O’odham Nation sued to stop it, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon rejected the tribe’s argument. The wall there sits on the Roosevelt Reservation, a 60-foot strip of federal land along the line.
Catch and release is over
The zero-release streak may be the most important change of all. A release means a migrant who crossed illegally is let go into the country instead of being held. Every release is a selling point for smugglers: get across, and you get in.
That pitch no longer works. Fox News reported that Border Patrol released more than 10,000 people in August 2024 alone. In August 2026, it released none.
“Catch and release is over, consequences are back,” Mullin said in September, when the streak hit 16 months.
The figures are preliminary, and DHS has not yet released final numbers for the year.
The bottom line
For four years, Americans were told the border could not be controlled without a massive new law from Congress. The 2026 numbers answer that claim. The same laws, enforced by an administration that meant it, cut crossings by 95%.
Fewer crossings mean fewer deaths in the desert, less money for cartels, and fewer people in American towns that never agreed to take them in. They also mean Border Patrol agents can get back to guarding the line instead of running a processing center.
The lesson for voters heading into November is simple. Border security was never a mystery. It was a choice, and this administration made it.
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