Trump Shows Political Will, Not More Laws, Secures Borders
Commentary
February 24, 2025
By Brian Lonergan
During the presidential campaign last year, Donald Trump repeatedly said that he would secure America’s porous borders very quickly.
This was met with skepticism from Trump’s critics, who insisted the border was far too complex a problem to be fixed with just his political will. Now, barely a month into his term, Trump has shown that political will is exactly what was needed to secure the border.
According to newly released data from Customs and Border Protection, just 61,465 people were apprehended at the southern border during the entire month of January – a 36 percent decline from the previous month. That number includes 29,116 apprehended along the border – the lowest since May 2020 – and 32,349 at ports of entry.
The numbers reflect a dramatic, almost overnight change at the southern border. From the day after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration to the end of the month, the number of U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions along the southwest border dropped 85 percent from the same period in 2024, according to data obtained by ABC News. In the 11 days after Jan. 20, migrants apprehended at ports of entry declined by 93 percent.
Journalists accompanying Border Patrol agents in SUVs, buses and speedboats in Texas are reporting not seeing any migrants in places where swarms were picked up daily the last four years.
https://www.irli.org/trump-shows-political-will-not-more-laws-secures-borders/
