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'Never Seen Anything This Low': Border Crossing Numbers Stun Reporter

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  January 28, 2025 8:00 AM

During a June 2019 Democratic debate, the party’s presidential candidates stood on stage and showed the world they would welcome illegal immigrants with open arms in America. The top contenders not only raised their hands in agreement that crossing the border illegally should be a civil offense rather than a crime, they also expressed their support for offering illegal immigrants health insurance. This was not the only time then-candidate Joe Biden’s open borders positions were made known. During a campaign stop a couple months later, he argued the U.S. could and should  “absorb” another 2 million illegal immigrants. He essentially rolled out the welcome mat and foreign nationals from around the world took him up on his offer. In December 2023, at the peak of the border crisis, there were more than 11,000 illegal immigrants crossing the border in just one day. Now, however, after campaigning on cracking down on the border crisis and vowing to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, border crossings under President Trump have plunged.  

Fox News’ Bill Melugin said he’s “never seen anything this low in all of my border coverage.”

“Per sources, Border Patrol recorded just 582 illegal crossings at the southern border yesterday, with not a single one of the nine sectors hitting 200,” he wrote on X.  

The numbers were already flat/low in Biden’s final week, bouncing between 1,200-1,400 illegal crossings daily, but the numbers have been falling off a cliff since Trump took office. 

Last three days 

January 24 - 665 

January 25 - 731 

January 26 - 582 

To put this into perspective, at the height of the border crisis in December 2023, Border Patrol hit a record high 11,000+ illegal crossings across the border in a single day, with the Del Rio sector alone getting 4,000+. I’m told there were 582 illegal crossings across the southern border yesterday, with only 60 happening in the Del Rio sector. And there are no longer 1,500+ migrants being released at ports of entry via the CBP One cell phone app every single day, as Trump immediately terminated the program. It’s still very early - we’ll see if these incredibly low numbers hold, especially heading into spring.