BIG BEND SECTOR — CBP apprehensions dropped 81% between January and February of this year. The big drop means that if encounters stay flat the rest of the year, statistics could return to a baseline set during the Obama and first Trump presidencies, when these figures hovered between 300,000 and 500,000. Apprehensions had been on the decline under the Biden administration since May of 2024, but at a much slower rate.
This year’s crash follows Fiscal Year 2021, which set the all-time record for apprehensions at 1,659,206. (While that figure has been widely cited by government officials and the media, it’s important to note that it was tabulated while a COVID-era Trump policy expediting removal was in place, so around a quarter of that figure were likely the same folks attempting to cross multiple times.)
Fiscal Year 2021 was an unusually busy year, but it wasn’t without precedent: CBP encountered record-high numbers of traffic in FY 2000 (1,643,679) and FY 1986 (1,615,844).
Each of these waves of migrations has inspired a shift in border policy, and the most recent is no exception. Both Republicans and Democrats talked tough this past election season, promising swift punishment for people attempting to cross the border illegally. Trump’s messaging prevailed, with around half the country signing off on his plans to deport millions of people and militarize the border.
It’s unclear what the soldiers headed to the Big Bend as a part of this plan will do. The Big Bend Sector, which stretches from Sierra Blanca to Sanderson, is one of the largest Border Patrol sectors by land area but receives less than half the traffic of California’s El Centro, the next least-busy area along the border. February 2025 saw just 165 apprehensions in the sector, or an average of six a day, compared to busy San Diego’s average of 59.
The Big Bend sector has also seen the least dramatic change since Trump took office of any of the sectors, experiencing a 71% drop while virtually all the others hovered in the mid-90s.
Last week, CBP announced the agency would be closing some “soft sided facilities,” or temporary processing centers that popped up in response to the high numbers of encounters during the Biden years.
President Trump has since claimed that the numbers represent the “lowest in history,” but if numbers stay consistent with February’s counts, they will represent the lowest the United States Border Patrol has seen since 1969.