Only three months in, Donald Trump’s second Administration has reigned in lawlessness on the southern border, revamping the broken immigration system, stemming the flow of illegal crossings, and deporting criminal aliens. He has accomplished this despite resistance from many states and localities to helping enforce the law, a barrage of criticism from the media, and an activist judiciary seeking to block the agenda on which he was elected. Immigration statistics have seen drastic changes since Joe Biden left office.

ICE arrests per month have surged 627 percent since the change of administrations, helping to discourage illegal crossings.¹ ICE’s ramped up efforts have resulted in the arrest of about 113,000 and deportation of about 100,000 illegal aliens, mostly with criminal records, as reports the administration.² FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform) estimates that just these deportations alone will save taxpayers around half a billion dollars annually. ³

FAIR estimates that there remain an estimated 18.6 million illegal aliens residing in the United States⁴, but the deportation process, the government says, is only getting off the ground. The House of Representatives last month boosted funding for ICE in its reconciliation bill, in its allocation of $200 million to homeland security⁵. In the last week, the administration established buffer zones at a vulnerable area along the border dubbed the Roosevelt Reservation, encompassing land in California, Arizona and New Mexico, sending military equipment and troops to patrol these areas.⁶ Troops are authorized to make arrests of illegal crossers.

Trump has been gradually racking up victories in the court battles over his efforts to stem the flow of illegal migrants. Recently, for example, he sat down with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador where he discussed, among other topics, the deportation of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, a convicted member of MS-13, a Salvadorian gang, which Trump’s opponents have been trying to reverse. The Supreme Court had ruled this deportation lawful, as well as his use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport criminal aliens including Abrego-Garcia, but has since paused such deportations.

There remains a staggering amount of work ahead, involving dealing with uncooperative local governments, fighting court battles, and even possible military action on the cartels, for the administration to fulfill its ultimate goals on border security and immigration. In the meantime, however, let’s look at some of the most noteworthy statistics thus far regarding the immigration situation.

The chart below depicts monthly crossings since the start of fiscal year 2024. As seen in this chart, by February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s second presidency, illegal crossings were reduced to 29,000, from over 125,000 in December, Biden’s last full month. The February 2025 count, which was duplicated in March, amounts to less than 10 percent of Biden’s all-time high count (331,000 in December of fiscal year 2024).

Рrior to Trump’s election in November, the number of migrant crossings per month sat at about 150,000, more than halved from previous highs at the end of fiscal year 2023, but still very costly to the nation. Very steep costs from illegal immigration had been imposed on the nation throughout the years of the Biden administration, which also illegally provided many illegal aliens with social security numbers, according to recent reports. Over 2 million, we know now, were given a social security number in 2024 alone.

As seen in the chart above, illegal immigration peaked around the end of 2023 and then gradually declined through the remaining months of the Biden administration. At this time, the Biden administration reinstated some of Trump’s рrevious policies to reduce the volume of crossings. Critics of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris claimed the administration instituted action to mitigate the crisis in part to mollify voters. However, this action was too little and too late, and Americans saw the border crisis as a key issue (40% per Rasmussen) and a motivating factor to vote for Trump.

Another important statistic relates to the the changing family status of the border crosses that has accompanied the change in border policy between the Biden and Trump administrations. This is quite visible in the chart below, which shows breakdown of migrant crossings by family status by month since the beginning of fiscal year 2024 (October 2023).

In March, migrant families comprised about 5 percent of all southern border encounters, following a 20 percentage point drop from January to February. In contrast, the family share ranged between 30 and 40 percent during the last 15 months of the Biden administration. Some have argued that it was a goal of Biden to have illegal immigrants bring their families, hoping to eventually expand the population of voters indebted to and voting for Democrats. This aspect aside, migration of family units clearly impose higher costs on taxpayers.

In sum, the data show that Trump administration has largely brought the migrant crisis under control, with what his supporters argue are sensible border policies completely in contrast to those of his predecessor. Trump, to reiterate, has much work in front of him in order to increase deportations and achieve his ultimate goals on homeland security. But even the 100,000 deportations of criminal aliens to date means less fentanyl trafficked into the country to kill Americans, fewer children being sex trafficked, and safer streets for the American people.

1. See U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “Under President Trump ICE Arrests Have Increased by 627%.” February 26, 2025. ↩︎
2. See Jennie Taer and Anna Young, “Trump administration has arrested 113K migrants, deported over 100K since taking office.” New York Post, March 31, 2025. ↩︎
3. According to FAIR, this is a low-end savings estimate, since most of the raids and deportation operations have occurred in large urban areas, where costs tied to illegal immigration are higher than average. ↩︎
4. See FAIR, “How Significant is 100,000 Deportations?” April 8, 2025. ↩︎
5. See Joe Chatham, “Congress Passes Budget Resolution, Funding for Immigration Enforcement Inches Forward“, FAIR, April 7, 2025. ↩︎
6. See Erin Leone, “Trump Administration Authorizes Control of Federal Land along the U.S. – Mexico Border“, FAIR, April 21, 2025. ↩︎
7. Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Stats and Summaries. ↩︎
8. Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Stats and Summaries. ↩︎