Washington – During Joe Biden's presidency, when he ran for re-election, Democrats Donald Trump and fellow Republicans blamed the surge in the number of people crossing the US-Mexico border.
Now, after campaigning on promises to secure the border and deport undocumented immigrants, President-elect Trump is set to take office on Monday amid a steep decline in border crossings.
Here are five key facts about migration along the U.S.-Mexico border over the past several years.
1. The number of people arriving at the border has dropped since Trump left office
When Trump left office in January 2021, people stopped at the southern border 78,000 times That month, according to figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It is compared to approx 96,000 stops Last month. The peak monthly total during the Biden administration in December 2023 was nearly 302,000, and Trump's peak total was slightly higher. 144,000 in May 2019.
These figures include asylum seekers arriving at land ports awaiting appointments for legal entry and those apprehended illegally crossing elsewhere at the border. Figures from November and December showed that for the first time, more immigrants were processed through ports of entry than those who entered the United States illegally and were apprehended.
In June, the Biden administration began effectively blocking migrants seeking asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico. Restrictions do not apply to those entering through official ports of entry or using other legal channels.
For parts of last year, San Diego was Best target Illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border for the first time in decades. The change reflects how the smuggling routes, which have been stable for years, have started changing every few months from 2021. Global migration to the US is part of a post-pandemic surge.
The San Diego region saw 10,117 border arrests in December — the second-highest after the Rio Grande Valley in Texas — down 70% from a year earlier.
2. Border arrivals not high before Trump's inauguration
In the weeks before Trump's inauguration, most areas across the border had seen little change in immigrant arrivals. But Border Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez, chief of the Rio Grande Valley Sector in South Texas, posts local arrest numbers on social media every week. 1,206 migrant stops On the last weekend of December, and 1,276 the previous weekend. This is more than double the number seen in recent weeks Less than 600 arrests.
“This is the first quantitative indicator of an increase in migration since the US election, raising expectations – so far not fulfilled – that more immigrants will rush to enter the US ahead of Election Day” Adam Isaacson is Director of Security Oversight at the Advocacy Organization's Washington Office for Latin Americawrote in a recent newsletter.
That trend eased in the new year with the Chavez report 669 people have been arrested January 5 and ending weekend 699 arrests The weekend ending January 12.
In 2016, before Trump began his first term, Isaacson noted a rush for asylum seekers to enter the United States. But border policies are now different, with Biden administration rules already preventing most people who enter illegally from qualifying for asylum.
“Their only hope is not to get caught,” he said. “Some may try, and if they succeed they will not be shown in numbers.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior member of the left-leaning American Immigration Council, said tens of thousands of migrants are waiting in Mexico.
“It is more difficult for immigrants to come to the border today and claim asylum than at any point in modern American history,” he said. “Despite massively increased infrastructure at the border, America continues to be a place of safety and security in the eyes of people around the world.”
3. The US border attracts mostly Mexican and Central American immigrants. Now people from all over the world flock here
The United States has historically attracted immigrants from its southern neighbors. Although Mexican nationals still make up the largest proportion of those seeking entry, arrivals from other countries have increased over time. During Trump's first administration, people from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador flocked to the US border due to instability in their own countries.
That started to change Around 2019. Throughout Biden's presidency, large numbers of people began arriving from Venezuela, Cuba, and Colombia. People also came from Afghanistan, Ukraine and China.
What's in the San Diego area? Considered the most international borderIt attracts people from all over the world.
Chinese immigrants in search of work and freedom The crackdown has started to come in record numbers from the government – from just 949 arrests in the 2022 fiscal year to more than 37,000 in the last fiscal year. Republicans seized on the escalation, portraying it as a national security issue.
After the Biden administration imposed asylum restrictions last year, the number began to decline after Chinese nationals in Ecuador began holding visas to fly there.
4. Immigrant detentions have increased again as Covid-19 subsides
The government's efforts to detain people who violate immigration laws have fluctuated wildly in recent years. During Trump's first term in office, the number of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement reached an all-time high of more than 55,000 people.
Courts have ordered some immigration detention centers to reduce their populations as COVID-19 spreads through lockups and kills inmates. The detention population reached about 13,000 in February 2021, the month after Biden took office. (The Adelanto ICE detention facility is east of Los Angeles It was under a Covid-19 court order (This prevented new inmates, reducing the population of the nearly 2,000-bed facility to two.)
Dec. As of 29, more than 39,000 people (most of them without a criminal record) were held in civil immigration detention facilities, according to TRAC, a nonpartisan data research organization. That number has been fairly steady over the past year, generally between 35,000 and less than 40,000 since late 2023.
The number is widely expected to rise again after Trump takes office as he works to fulfill his promise of mass deportations.
5. Historic visits under the Biden administration add to an already massive backlog in immigration court.
Immigrants involved in deportation proceedings can plead their case to an immigration judge. With the historic influx of immigrants under the Biden administration, pending cases in immigration court now exceed 3.7 million, according to TRAC.
Biden inherited an already overburdened immigration court system with 1.3 million cases. When Trump took office in 2017, it ended 542,000 cases were pending.
In fiscal year 2024, immigration courts closed 900,000 cases — the most in any year. New cases have fallen sharply as fewer immigrants are processed at the border.
Los Angeles County has nearly 115,000 cases, the second highest after Miami-Dade County. And experts say the backlog cannot be eliminated without funding and systemic reforms for hundreds of immigration judges and support staff.