WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Today, the House Committee on Homeland Security released its newest “Border Brief” factsheet, detailing the February U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, which revealed Southwest border apprehensions (8,347) decreased 94% last month compared to February 2024 and 71% compared to January 2025.
 
In his first full month in office, the Trump administration’s proper enforcement of laws, rescission of unlawful Biden administration policies, coordination with state and local law enforcement, and partnership with the military has allowed a clear, unmistakable “Trump Effect” to continue at our borders. Now, CBP recorded the lowest nationwide apprehension average in its history.
 
Compared to Joe Biden’s last year in office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests have increased by more than 600%. Included in those arrests was a Haitian national charged with three murders in North Carolina. 

The Biden administration allowed roughly 1.5 million insufficiently-vetted, inadmissible aliens into our communities through the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) and CBP One mass parole schemes, but Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has swiftly ended both––even producing a new app, CBP Home, to aid self-deportation. As a result, encounters at ports of entry along the Southwest border dropped 93% last month compared to February 2024.
 
For four years, Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden argued they were working to combat unprecedented migration at our borders, and they needed new resources and laws to stem the influx. It is clear the Biden border crisis was by design––not by accident. President Trump, Border Czar Tom Homan, and Secretary Noem have reversed the chaos at our borders in less than two months. All it took was a new administration. 

Key Facts:

• CBP recorded just 28,654 encounters nationwide in February, including 11,709 at the Southwest border. 
• Southwest border encounters (11,709) in February decreased by 80% compared to January 2025 (61,447), President Biden’s last month in office.
• U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) apprehensions between ports of entry at the Southwest border decreased 94%.
• The nationwide apprehension average per day was the lowest in CBP history (330) in February. 
• Encounters at ports of entry along the Southwest border dropped 93% in February compared to February 2024.
• CBP encounters of inadmissible aliens at the Northern border dropped by 72% in February 2025 compared to February 2024. 
• The number of known gotaways has plunged more than 90% since the Trump administration began.

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