The US reports an 80% reduction in undocumented crossings from Mexico compared to 2024

Emir Olivares and Arturo Sánchez

La Jornada Newspaper
Thursday, October 30, 2025, p. 8

During fiscal year 2025, the United States reported a drop of almost 80 percent in the number of migrants attempting to enter irregularly through its southern border, compared to 2024.

Statistics from the Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) show that during that fiscal year – which has just closed, since it runs from October of the previous year to September of the current one – there were 443,671 “encounters” between immigration authorities and those who tried to enter US territory without documents.

The figure is equivalent to 20.7 percent of what was reported in fiscal year 2024, which reached 2 million 135 thousand five arrests of migrants in that situation, which implies that of the five attempts registered last year, only one was reported in 2025.

The reduction in crossings increased since Donald Trump’s second government, which began on January 20, due to his anti-immigration policies and the closure of all options to request asylum in the United States.

In eight months of the magnate’s second government (from February to September) 85,694 “migratory encounters” were reported on the US border with Mexico, while from October 2024 to January 2025 (the last stretch of former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration) there were 357,977.

The record of migrants who attempted to cross land irregularly during the Trump period is equivalent to 19.3 percent of the total for fiscal year 2025.

Official CBP statistics show that in October 2024, 106,316 migrant arrests were reported at the US border; The following month there were 94,183; December closed with 96,033, and January (Biden’s last month in government) reported 61,445 “encounters.”