The last monthly gauge of border arrests under Biden hovered near 4 1/2-year lows and was below much of 2019, during Trump's first term, but about triple from April 2017, early in Trump's presidency and a low point that he highlighted on giant charts at campaign rallies.
Trump's border emergency declaration comes amid relative calm after years of major turmoil Long stretches of silence on a Border Patrol scanner are punctuated with updates on tracking a single migrant for hours.
Saying that “America's sovereignty is under attack,” President Donald Trump's declaration of a border emergency comes at a time of relative calm after years of deep turmoil.
Arrests fell by about half when Mexican authorities increased enforcement within their own borders a year ago and by about half again when former President Joe Biden introduced severe asylum restrictions in June.
Arrests for illegal border crossings plummeted more than 80% to about 47,000 in December from an all-time high of 250,000 the same period a year earlier.
