In a remarkable turnaround, the United States has the most secure border ever and in less than two years a multitude of terror threats have been eliminated with the arrest of more than 2,288 known or suspected terrorists (KST) and the removal of thousands more KSTs. Additionally, nearly 1.2 million illegal aliens have been deported during the second Trump administration and another million arrested, according to the latest government figures. The promising stats show that the tide is finally turning on the Biden administration’s catastrophic open border policies that allowed a record-breaking 7.6 million illegal immigrants into the U.S., including hundreds of thousands with serious criminal records and more than 1.7 million from countries that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) determined pose a national security threat to the country.
Besides quickly securing the once-porous 1,954-mile border we share with Mexico, the Trump administration has made 12,018 gang-related arrests, including 1,965 members of the famously violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and 1,553 members of the equally deadly Tren de Aragua (TdA). The State Department has designated both gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) explaining that MS-13 actively recruits, organizes, and spreads violence in several countries and has conducted numerous violent attacks, including assassination and the gang uses public displays of violence to intimidate civilian populations. TdA, which originated in Venezuela and has spread its criminal enterprise throughout the U.S., is a brutal criminal group that conducts kidnappings, extorts businesses, bribes public officials, authorizes its members to attack and kill American law enforcement. The gang also assassinated a Venezuelan opposition figure. The State Department took the action last year because terrorist designations expose and isolate entities and individuals, denying them access to the U.S. financial system and the resources they need to conduct attacks.
The broad immigration crackdown indicates that the rule of law is being restored and, despite local sanctuary governments’ refusal to cooperate, communities across the country are much safer. “Less than two years after President Trump returned to office, he has fulfilled his signature promise to secure our border, arrest and deport illegal aliens, and Make America Safe Again,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, adding that more than 3 million migrants have left the U.S. during Trump’s second White House term. “We have had 17 consecutive months with ZERO illegal aliens released into our country,” the DHS secretary revealed. It marks the first time in American history that no illegal immigrants are released at the border during an entire fiscal year, due in part to the end of Biden’s catch-and-release. The Trump administration has also consistently used detention and removal tools eliminated under Biden and sent a clear message that illegal entry into the United States will not be rewarded or tolerated as it was under Biden’s joke of a Border Czar, Kamala Harris.
The numbers show that the tactic has worked, with total apprehensions in fiscal year 2026, which ended September 30, 60% lower (98,708) than the Biden administration’s single highest month alone (249,740). Additionally, nationwide encounters in fiscal year 2026 were the lowest (379,243) in the history of Customs and Border Protection (CPB), the frontline DHS agency with 69,000 employees responsible for safeguarding the nation’s borders. Under Biden the encounters were seven times higher at 2.7 million per year. Drug seizures have also improved tremendously with recent CBP stats showing nearly a million pounds seized in 2026, a 63% increase from the 600,000-pound annual average of the last four years under Biden. DHS wants to stress that the illegal aliens who have been deported are not just hard-working poor people in search of a better life. Many are violent gang members, rapists, kidnappers, murderers, and drug traffickers. They have been classified “Worst of the Worst” and DHS provides the public with their criminal record and mug shots on an extensive database that grows daily.
Tens of thousands of these criminal aliens have been rounded up in federal operations throughout the nation, mostly in cities and counties that offer them sanctuary. In a recent example, more than 1,300 illegal immigrants with serious criminal records were apprehended by federal authorities in two suburbs surrounding the nation’s capital. Among them were murderers, rapists, kidnappers, arsonists, drug traffickers, and members criminal street gangs such as TdA, MS-13 and 18th Street.
