Catch-And-Release ENDS — What Changed?

People being searched by border patrol officers

A border that Washington elites once claimed could never be secured has now gone 13 straight months without releasing a single illegal alien into the United States.

Story Snapshot

Trump’s team reports 13 consecutive months of **zero illegal alien releases** at the southern border.
Border apprehensions are down more than 90 percent from Biden-era levels, the lowest in decades.
“Catch and release” has been replaced with fast returns, removals, and real enforcement of existing law.
Critics admit crossings are way down but attack Trump for shutting off easy asylum loopholes.

Trump’s Zero-Release Milestone Ends Catch and Release

The Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection say the United States has now logged 13 straight months of what they call “zero releases” of migrants caught crossing illegally at the southern border. Officials explain that when Border Patrol agents apprehend someone between ports of entry, that person is no longer released into the interior to wait years for a court date. Instead, they are detained, removed, or sent back under existing immigration laws.^[2]

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin called the streak “thirteen straight months of ZERO releases at the border,” declaring that “the days of catch and release are over.”^[2] For decades, Americans watched Washington talk tough while millions crossed, claimed asylum, and vanished into communities. Under President Trump’s second term, the policy is simple: if you cross illegally, you do not get to stay. That clear rule is what many border agents and sheriffs had begged for during the Biden years.^[3]

Record-Low Crossings and What the Numbers Really Show

Customs and Border Protection data for May report 9,998 apprehensions along the southwest border, a level the agency says is 94 percent lower than the average month under President Biden and 96 percent below the peak of his crisis.^[2] Daily apprehensions now average in the low hundreds, compared to times under Biden when agents saw more migrants in a single hour than they now see in an entire day.^[3] Federal statistics and outside analysts agree these are some of the lowest illegal crossing levels in more than thirty years.^[1]

The White House says this shift is not magic, but the result of clear enforcement. Trump’s team ended parole-style mass releases, surged resources to deportations, and worked with states and local partners to remove incentives to cross.^[9] The administration reports more than 605,000 illegal aliens deported and another 1.9 million who chose to leave on their own since Trump returned to office, for over 2.5 million total departures.^[9] For communities that felt overrun during the Biden surge, these numbers represent a complete reversal of course.

How Trump Secured the Border When Others Would Not

Trump’s second-term strategy attacked the crisis on several fronts at once. On day one, he signed an executive order directing agencies to enforce immigration law on the books rather than invent new loopholes.^[2] The administration then shut down the smartphone “CBP One” asylum app and other Biden-era pathways that had funneled would-be migrants toward the border. Critics at the American Immigration Council admit that, as a result, “there is effectively no legal means to seek asylum at the U.S. southern border” in the way it existed before.^[7]

At the same time, Trump declared what he called an “invasion” emergency and treated the border like a security problem, not a public-relations problem.^[8] Thousands of military personnel were reassigned to support border operations, new barriers and surveillance were added, and cartels faced more pressure at crossings.^[7] A detailed analysis from the Migration Policy Institute notes that monthly “encounters” have stayed under 15,000 since early 2025, a collapse from the more than 300,000 recorded in December 2023 under Biden.^[8] That means fewer gotaways, fewer caravans, and fewer busloads dropped into small towns without warning.

What Critics Say, and What It Means for American Voters

Left-leaning activists and think tanks do not dispute that illegal crossings and releases have crashed. Instead, they argue that Trump has been “too effective” at closing the door. The American Immigration Council complains that Trump’s “Guaranteeing the States Protection Against Invasion” order shut down asylum access and allowed rapid deportations for anyone caught crossing.^[7] In other words, the same firm policies that stopped the flood are what critics dislike most, because they end the easy path into the country.

For many Americans, especially those in border states, the debate feels very different. They remember Biden’s years of chaos, crime tied to cartels, and strain on schools, hospitals, and local budgets. Now they see an administration that insists on sovereignty and says the Constitution means something at the border too. With thirteen months of zero releases and crossings at levels not seen since the 1960s, Trump has shown that a secure border is not a fantasy—it is a choice.^[6]