U.S. Border Patrol encounters with migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico have fallen to their lowest level in more than 50 years, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of statistics from the federal government.
The Border Patrol recorded 237,538 encounters with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2025 fiscal year, which began in October 2024 and ended in September 2025. That was down from more than 1.5 million encounters in fiscal 2024, more than 2 million in fiscal 2023, and a record of more than 2.2 million in fiscal 2022. The 2025 total was the lowest in any fiscal year since 1970, according to historical data from the Border Patrol.
This Pew Research Center analysis looks at how U.S. Border Patrol encounters with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border have changed in recent years.
Pew Research Center does research to help the public, media and decision-makers understand important topics. This research builds on our long-standing work on migration trends.
Learn more about Pew Research Center and our work on immigration and migration.
This analysis relies on statistics published on a regular basis by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency that encompasses the Border Patrol.
In 2025, encounters with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border fell to their lowest level since 1970
Note: Beginning in fiscal 2020, totals combine apprehensions and expulsions into a new category known as encounters. Totals before March 2020 include apprehensions only. Some migrants are encountered more than once.
In this analysis, the term “encounters” refers primarily to Border Patrol apprehensions of migrants crossing into the U.S. between official points of entry. It refers to events, not people. Border Patrol agents may encounter some migrants more than once – for example, if a migrant is apprehended and deported but tries to enter the U.S. again.
The dramatic decline in migrant encounters follows a series of policy changes in both the U.S. and Mexico during both the Biden and Trump administrations:
- In April 2024, then-U.S. President Joe Biden and then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced an agreement to step up immigration enforcement. Mexico’s increased enforcement reportedly has played a significant role in reducing migrant flows to the U.S.
- In June 2024 and again in September 2024, the Biden administration imposed new restrictions on migrants seeking asylum in the U.S.
- Immediately after returning to office in January 2025, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the southwestern border and directed the U.S. military to assist with border security. The administration also shut down a Biden-era app that had allowed migrants to apply for asylum.
- The Trump administration has increased arrests and deportations of migrants from the interior of the U.S., potentially deterring new migrant arrivals at the border.
Sources: U.S. Customs and Border Protection / PEW RESEARCH CENTER
