Donald Trump has long pushed for a tougher approach on illegal immigration, both on the U.S.-Mexico border and elsewhere in the country. As a candidate for president, Trump pledged to
build a border wall to reduce illegal crossings. And shortly after being elected, Trump said his administration
would deport as many as 3 million unauthorized immigrants with criminal records living in the United States.
So how has immigration enforcement changed under Trump? Here’s a look at the data on three key measures – border apprehensions, interior arrests and deportations – based on the latest available full-year statistics from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border
The number of migrant apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border rose in fiscal 2019 to its
highest annual level in 12 years. The 851,508 apprehensions recorded last fiscal year (October 2018-September 2019) were more than double the number the year before (396,579) but still well short of the levels in the early 2000s,
according to CBP, the agency tasked with enforcing immigration laws at the border.
The increase in apprehensions has come as a growing number of migrants
seek asylum. The demographic profile of those crossing the border has changed, too: People traveling in families, not single adults, accounted for the majority of those apprehended last year (56%). And most of those apprehended were from the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, which have struggled with
violence and a lack of economic opportunities. That represents a notable break from the 2000s and early 2010s, when Mexicans accounted for the vast majority of those apprehended.
The sharp rise in Central American families seeking asylum led to what CBP called a “
humanitarian and national security border crisis.” In response, the Trump administration has made
far-reaching changes to asylum procedures to discourage migrants from entering the U.S. along the southwest border. One prominent change is a policy known informally as “Remain in Mexico,” under which many asylum seekers at the southwest border
wait in Mexico while their claims are adjudicated. In the past, many migrants apprehended at the border waited in the U.S. –
for years, on average – until their cases were resolved. (Last week, a federal appeals court in California
halted the Remain in Mexico program, and recent news reports have suggested that use of the program had
declined anyway.)
