Staff Reports
The Department of Homeland Security has just released numbers that are impossible to ignore. In April the U.S. Border Patrol recorded only 8,943 southwest border apprehensions, and DHS says the Border Patrol has now gone a full year without releasing a single illegal immigrant into the country. Those two facts together tell a clear story: border security is working when leadership wants it to work.
What the new CBP numbers actually show
Put plainly, these aren’t small swings — they are a collapse of the chaos that defined the previous administration. April’s 8,943 apprehensions represent a roughly 94 percent drop from Biden-era monthly averages and a 96 percent drop from the December 2023 peak, when agents were logging hundreds of illegal crossings every hour. To borrow the math from the report: at that old pace, agents then processed in about a day what today’s Border Patrol processed in an entire month.
Zero releases and real enforcement
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott were right to highlight the milestone: twelve straight months with zero releases at the border. That’s not a talking point — it’s a policy change with teeth. “Catch and release” was never a law; it was a choice. This administration chose to stop it, and the results are plainly visible in the data.
Fewer crossings = smarter fights against fentanyl and crime
Lower illegal crossings mean agents can focus on real threats. While apprehensions fell, nationwide seizures of cocaine, heroin, meth, marijuana, and fentanyl surged — up about 60 percent compared to April last year. CBP reported seizing 463 pounds of fentanyl in April alone, a haul that likely stopped millions of lethal doses before they ever reached American neighborhoods. That’s border security that protects lives, not just headlines.
Politically, this is a lesson in accountability and choices. For years we were told the border couldn’t be fixed without massive new laws or that releases were inevitable. The new numbers show otherwise: leadership, clear policy, and enforcement changed outcomes. If you care about border security, illegal immigration, and stopping deadly drugs from crossing into our country, these results deserve attention — and frankly, some applause. The question now is whether the other side will admit the fix or keep insisting the crisis was fictional; don’t bet on humility.
