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Border Patrol agents encountered about 6,300 migrants illegally crossing the southwest border in August, a 90 percent drop compared to the same month last year, according to unofficial figures reviewed by Breitbart Texas.
The reports said agents working between Brownsville, Texas, and San Diego, California, averaged just over 200 apprehensions per day. When including all other Border Patrol sectors, the nationwide total reached approximately 8,000 encounters in August, or nearly 260 a day.
That marks a sharp decline from August 2024, when agents apprehended close to 61,000 migrants who entered between ports of entry, a year-over-year decrease of nearly 87 percent.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the monthly average of migrant apprehensions has fallen below 6,000, according to the reports.
The White House last month touted what it called the “Most Secure Border in History” as July apprehensions dropped to a record low of 4,601. Border Patrol data showed daily averages falling to 148 in July, and just 112 in a single day in June, a record broken July 20 when only 88 migrants were taken into custody.
The administration has also emphasized that, for three straight months, no migrants apprehended after illegally crossing were released into the United States. Under the Biden administration’s “catch and release” policies, between 50 and 70 percent of those encountered were admitted into the country.
The reduction in crossings has coincided with a drop in migrant deaths in the Del Rio Sector, one of the busiest regions of the border. Deaths there have fallen from roughly one per day at the height of crossings in 2023 to fewer than one per month in 2025. In September 2022, nine migrants drowned in a single day while attempting to cross the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass.
The official government data for August is expected to be released around mid-September.
The statistics follow a new report from Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica, revealing that President Trump’s border crackdown has prompted thousands of migrants to abandon plans to enter the United States and instead return to their home countries.
The joint study, compiled by ombudsmen from the three nations with support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, found that more than 14,000 migrants were traveling south rather than north this year. Nearly all were Venezuelan, and about half said they planned to return to Venezuela.