White House Says February Recorded 'Lowest' Amount Of Border Crossings in U.S. History

The number of migrant crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border was among the lowest in decades during President Donald Trump's first full month in office, the White House said. Concretely, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents made an estimated 8,450 apprehensions in February, making it the first time Border Patrol averaged roughly 8,000 apprehensions since 1968 according to historical statistics.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said February was "the lowest month in recorded history for encounters." In a post on X she also thanked Trump for his "strong leadership" as well as CBP agents for "keeping America safe."

Trump echoed the figure on his social media platform, Truth Social, adding that those encountered by agents were "quickly ejected" from the U.S. and in some cases, "prosecuted for crimes against the United States of America."

Although Trump and Noem claim February 2025 saw the lowest number of crossings, CBP is yet to officially release encounter data for that month. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin did confirm to Reuters that apprehensions were on pace to be at or near a record monthly low.

According to the most recent data shared by CBP, the agency reported nearly 29,116 encounters by Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border in January. Out of the nine sectors that divide the border, eight of them saw a significant decrease in their number of encounters with the exception of the Big Bend Sector, which saw an increase of 8.6%.

As CBS News reports, the total apprehensions made during February would be the lowest monthly tally recorded by Border Patrol since at least fiscal year 2000, the last period with public monthly data.

Since 2000, the only time apprehensions in a single month came close to the 8,000 threshold was in April 2017, when Border Patrol made 11,000.

"The men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Protection are aggressively implementing the president's executive orders to secure our borders," CBP Acting Commissioner Pete Flores said. "These actions have already resulted in dramatic improvements in border security."