Border crossings are at an all-time low, while arrests of illegal immigrants in Michigan are up significantly from the past.
“March saw the lowest number of apprehensions by the U.S. Border Patrol along the Southwest Border in history,” John Morris, U.S. Border Patrol’s Detroit Sector chief, posted to X on Wednesday. “Concurrently, the Detroit Sector arrested the most illegal aliens in recent memory. America: Safer every day.”
The post linked to Tuesday news release detailing the numbers for March: “the Border Patrol data shows that around 7,180 southwest border crossings were recorded, a dramatic drop compared to the monthly average of 155,000 from the previous four years.
“Daily southwest border apprehensions have also fallen to around 230 per day – a 95% drop from the previous administration’s average daily encounters of 5,100 per day,” the release read.
The data comes amid the most extensive deportation effort in U.S. history, initiated as promised by President Donald Trump on the first day of his second term in January.
“Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary (of Homeland Security Kristi) Noem, the administration has taken bold, decisive action to restore control at the border. Border Patrol agents are empowered like never before to shut down unlawful entry and protect American lives,” Pete Flores, acting commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said in a statement. “The message is clear: the border is closed to illegal crossings, and for those still willing to test our resolve, know this – you will be prosecuted, and you will be deported.”
Michael Banks, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, noted on a post to X that the 230 daily border apprehensions in March is “a number our country has never seen before.”
Banks’ post was accompanied by a promotional USBP video that features Trump’s remarks during his recent joint address to Congress.
“The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation. ‘We must have legislation to secure the border,’” Trump said. “But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.”
In Michigan, the crackdown is taking a lot of bad hombres off the streets.
In the last week alone, social media posts from Morris have highlighted apprehensions of Tren de Aragua gang members, a Mexican national with multiple drunken driving offenses in recent months, previously deported criminals, a man wanted for murder in El Salvador, another wanted for murder in Venezuela, and others.
In early March, the U.S. U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced prosecutors have charged 46 illegal immigrants with a range of crimes since the new year, from drug trafficking to illegal firearms possession to child pornography offenses.
The cases involved individuals from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela who entered the country illegally with prior convictions for human smuggling, drug trafficking, drunken driving, assault, and theft.
“These cases represent a fraction of the criminal aliens we and our federal partners arrest every day across the Detroit Sector that’s making this country safer than it was just a few short months ago,” Morris said in a statement.
The arrests continue as lawmakers in Lansing butt heads over immigration policy in the Great Lakes State. Legislation introduced by Democrats to provide driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants recently failed to clear the House when all Republicans and six Democrats opposed the measure, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Democrats in opposition included Jasper Martus of Flushing, Denise Mentzer of Mt. Clemens, Reggie Miller of Van Buren Township, Amos O’Neal of Saginaw, Angela Witwer of Delta Township and Mai Xiong of Warren.
A Republican majority in the lower chamber have vowed to restrict state funding to local governments that provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants, while Democrats who control the upper chamber have worked to block legislation introduced by Republicans to align the state’s policies on immigration with federal immigration enforcement efforts.
