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Border catch and releases have dropped 99.99% under Trump. Here’s what’s driving this stunning turnaround.

The remarkable security turnaround currently occurring at America’s southern border under President Trump is continuing, with reports indicating that the number of individuals caught and released into the US in the month of February was 99.99% less than it was in December 2023 under former President Biden.

As reported by The Washington Times on Monday, the number of illegal border crossers who were caught and then released into the US in December 2023, at the height of the border crisis under Biden, was 189,604. In February of this year, by comparison, the number stood at 20 — about one-hundredth of 1% of the total under Biden.

The nosedive comes amid two record-breaking months of all-time low illegal border crossings in February and March, in which 8,326 and 7,181 illegal border crossers (respectively) were arrested by the US Border Patrol (USBP) under the Trump administration. “I started as a Border Patrol Agent in 1984, which was 41 years ago. I cannot recall a single month since then that the numbers have been that low,” border czar Tom Homan remarked. “The men and women of the Border Patrol have proven what they can accomplish when they are allowed to do their job and complete the mission of their agency.”

Border Catch and Releases Under Biden: A Contrast

Experts say the drastic change at the border is driven by the change in policies under Trump. During the Biden administration, over 75% of illegal border crossers were released into the US interior as part of a “catch and release” policy that allowed illegal immigrants to stay in the US pending an immigration court appearance. However, as reported by the Center for Immigration Studies, tens of thousands of illegal immigrants released by the Biden administration failed to appear at their court dates. In addition, over half a million migrants who were released never received a “Notice to Report” (NTR) from the administration.

In stark contrast, the Trump administration is closely accounting for all apprehended illegal border crossers. As noted by The Washington Times, out of the 8,314 border crossers captured in February, “451 were given voluntary return, or allowed to leave on their own; 745 were immediately issued notices to appear, or immigration court summonses, and detained; 1,793 had previously been deported and had those orders of removal reinstated; and 4,811, roughly 56%, were transferred to other federal agencies, most of them likely to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

“This is what it looks like when it’s properly implemented,” observed Center for Immigration Studies Fellow Andrew “Art” Arthur, who formerly served as an immigration judge. “The more people that you detain, the fewer people are going to come, which means the fewer people you have to detain and the more detention space you have to detain everybody.”

The Impact of Low Border Catch and Releases on Human Trafficking

The record-low numbers of illegal border crossers are also leading to a drastic decrease in potential victims of sex and labor trafficking at the border. Under Biden, “forced labor and prostitution among underage migrants more than tripled” when compared to the numbers in Trump’s first term. In February, however, “Illegal immigrant families and unaccompanied children accounted for about 15% of arrests,” which was the lowest percentage since 2020.

In addition, requests for search and rescues along the border were also reportedly “way down,” leading to fewer potentially hazardous situations for USBP personnel to navigate.

Notably, USBP also did not detain a single terrorist suspect along the border in February or March, a first since the Department of Homeland Security began releasing those records. In comparison, the USBP under the Biden administration encountered over 1,703 people on the US terrorist watchlist, averaging 10 arrests per month.

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Republished with thanks to The Washington Stand. Image courtesy of Unsplash.