Trump Border Crackdown Cuts Crossings, Speeds Wall Construction

Border crossings along the US-Mexico border have dropped sharply since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, and construction of the border wall has sped up with new federal money, according to a BBC News report published Oct. 26.

The numbers mark a reversal from 2023 and 2024, when more than 4.5 million migrant "encounters" were recorded at the southern border under President Joe Biden, the BBC reported, citing the scale of people heading north during that period.

How much have border crossings dropped since Trump took office?

Monthly border encounters fell significantly after Trump returned to the White House, according to the BBC. The report said the change followed steps taken late in the Biden administration to restrict asylum claims and remove migrants who entered illegally without processing — a trend that continued and intensified once Trump took office.

By the end of Trump's first year back in office, the BBC said, the crowded, chaotic scenes that had drawn global attention under Biden had largely disappeared. On a reporting trip to El Paso, Texas, in November 2025, BBC journalists found quiet streets where makeshift camps had previously housed thousands of migrants who had been paroled into the US to wait for immigration hearings, the outlet reported.

What happened to asylum claims and 'catch and release'?

The administration's approach combined several steps at once, according to the BBC: effectively freezing asylum applications at the border, ending the practice of releasing detained migrants into the US while their cases proceeded — commonly called "catch and release" — deploying troops to the border, and pressuring the Mexican government to slow the flow of migrants heading toward the US.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin credited that combination of measures for the drop in crossings. "President Trump promised the American people a secure border, and the data proves he delivered," Mullin said in a statement on Oct. 16, according to the BBC. "The results could not be clearer: strong enforcement works."

How fast is the border wall being built now?

Construction of the wall along the nearly 2,000-mile US-Mexico border — a signature promise from Trump's 2016 campaign — has picked up pace in his second term, the BBC reported. Before Trump returned to office, government figures cited by the BBC showed about 644 miles of "primary" wall closest to the border, plus 75 miles of "secondary" wall built farther inside the US.

Since Trump's return, the BBC reported, roughly 250 additional miles of new wall have been completed. That figure includes primary, secondary and waterborne barriers, along with surveillance technology used to detect illegal crossings.

Where is the money for the wall coming from?

The added construction has been funded in part by $46.5 billion in new money included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful" spending bill, according to the BBC. That is a far larger sum than was available for wall construction during Trump's first term, when legal challenges and funding fights with Congress slowed progress.

By the numbers

• 4.5 million-plus: migrant encounters recorded at the southern border in 2023 and 2024 combined, under the Biden administration, per the BBC.
• 644 miles: primary border wall in place before Trump returned to office in January 2025, according to government figures cited by the BBC.
• 75 miles: secondary wall built farther inside the US border before Trump's return, per the same figures.
• 250 miles: new wall — primary, secondary and waterborne barriers plus detection technology — completed since Trump returned to office, the BBC reported.
• $46.5 billion: new federal funding for border wall construction included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful" spending bill, according to the BBC.

Why has the administration faced fewer legal obstacles this time?

Trump's first-term immigration plans were often slowed by federal courts, the BBC noted. In his second term, those restraints have been weaker, the outlet reported, pointing to a more accommodating Supreme Court and the tens of billions of dollars in additional enforcement funding approved by Congress. The BBC said immigration remains central to how voters are expected to judge Trump's presidency in the upcoming midterm elections, which are widely seen as a referendum on his record in office. The outlet reported that even some voters who backed a tougher border stance have expressed concern that the crackdown has gone further than they expected.

"President Trump promised the American people a secure border, and the data proves he delivered. The results could not be clearer: strong enforcement works." — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Oct. 16 statement

For the full BBC report on the shift in US immigration policy, including additional detail on enforcement operations, see the original BBC News article.