DHS says border calm is ‘the new normal’

The Border Patrol in March posted its 11th straight month without a single catch-and-release of an illegal immigrant at the southwestern boundary, leading officials to declare the record levels of calm “the new normal.”

Agents nabbed 8,268 illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border last month, up from last year’s 7,179, but still a pittance of what used to happen at the border in the Biden era, when March averaged 170,000 arrests a month.

And the number of unaccompanied children and migrants traveling as families — the trickiest cases — totaled just 743. During some months under President Biden, that figure topped 100,000.

Rodney Scott, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, credited President Trump’s policies of more manpower, border walls and “real consequences” for illegal crossers as the reasons for the near-record lows, which have now been sustained for more than a year.

“This isn’t temporary — it’s the new normal,” he said.

Mr. Trump saw similar drops during his first administration, but both times the numbers snapped back up after several months.

Mr. Scott said a “unified federal effort” has made this time different.

New Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said word has gotten out to would-be migrants.

“The world knows America’s borders are closed to lawbreakers,” he said.

CBP recorded 31,445 unauthorized entries in March across all of the country’s land borders, seas and airports. That’s down from a peak of more than 370,000 in December 2023.

Nearly half of last month’s traffic — about 14,000 — came at airports. There’s always some background noise of travelers who manage to get here without a legal visa. Still, those numbers have been ticking up in recent months.

The second-highest category is migrants nabbed as they try to sneak across the southern border.

Of the 8,268 caught, 7,093 of them were grabbed as they entered. The rest were caught somewhat deeper in the interior.