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The Department of Homeland Security placed southwest border apprehensions for fiscal year 2026 at under 99,000, a 95 percent reduction compared with annual figures reported under the prior administration. Nationwide encounters fell to 379,243, the lowest total in agency history according to the department. September marked the 17th consecutive month with zero Border Patrol releases into the United States, the department’s preliminary data indicated.
The White House stated that the illegal alien population has been reduced by at least 2.3 million during President Trump’s second term with more than three million migrants leaving the country. Nearly 1.2 million illegal aliens have been deported or removed and nearly 1.3 million arrests carried out, according to the administration’s October 2026 release. The United States recorded negative net migration in 2025 for the first time in at least 50 years, White House figures show.
A recent BBC report examined five ways Trump has changed immigration in the US, highlighting enforcement shifts that have continued from his first term into the current administration. Asylum grants have fallen to just 7 percent of cases from more than 50 percent previously, government data placed the figure at that level. The immigration court backlog dropped from more than 4.18 million cases to under 3.09 million, marking the sharpest decrease in the history of the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
Pew Research Center data from the first Trump term showed interior arrests by ICE rose 30 percent in fiscal 2017 after an executive order broadened enforcement authority. Federal criminal prosecutions for immigration offenses increased 87 percent between fiscal 2017 and 2018 to a two-decade high, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics figures. Reuters reporting from 2020 noted that the first administration issued more than 400 policy changes that added bureaucratic hurdles for legal and illegal immigration alike.
The Trump administration has secured more than 2,500 agreements with state and local law enforcement under Immigration and Nationality Act Section 287(g), the White House said in its October 2026 summary. Deportation flights reached record highs with the highest number of illegal alien arrests in a single month recorded in August, according to the release. The Department of Homeland Security conducted more than 206 million benefits eligibility checks in 2025 to ensure public resources remained available for American citizens.
A Reuters assessment found that the first Trump term cut refugee admissions to the lowest level since the modern program began in 1980 with a ceiling of 18,000 for fiscal 2020. Current policies have built on those restrictions while expanding expedited removal and third-country deportations, a Brookings Institution review of the first 100 days of the second term stated. Officials have reported that entries by asylum seekers at U.S.-Mexico ports have been slashed by 99.9 percent under the latest measures.
