How many illegal border crossings happen monthly?
-And, how many have criminal records?
(Note: this is the fourth in our series of in-depth reports on US border Issues)
About 6,100 attempted crossings were detected along the US Southern Border with Mexico in June 2025, 92.7% fewer than in June 2024, according to a usafacts.org analysis of US government data.
This is sharply down from the high of attempted illegal crossings, which corresponded to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (see chart below):
From 2017 to 2024, border arrests DOUBLED (as the chart below indicates)
So, how many of those migrants had a criminal record (aside from illegally entering the US)?
During the last full fiscal year, the number of criminal noncitizen arrests — now referred to by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as criminal alien arrests — represented 1.1% of all border apprehensions by the US Border Patrol (USBP), which amounts to about 17,000 migrants:
Besides immigration offenses, alcohol & drug offenses were the most common crimes committed by illegal aliens arrested by the US Border Patrol:
Despite the dramatic drop in illegal crossings, the El Paso Border Patrol Sector (and its neighboring vast Big Bend Sector in West Texas, which is responsible for a 517-mile stretch of the US-Mexico Border) has become the new human smuggling “hot spot,” because it is so large, so remote, and so difficult to police:
That’s why the Department of Defense stationed some of the first US Army “Stryker Crews” assigned to the Southern US Border Security Mission there last March, when President Trump first began militarizing the Southern Border:
And it’s why last month, the US Border Patrol deployed an “Aerostat” Aerial Balloon Surveillance System there to tighten security along a large stretch of the Rio Grande border with Mexico:
Do you believe the US Southern Border is more secure after President Trump began his second term in office?
Share your opinions in the comments to this article.
(Also, do you want more in-depth reports like this one? I want to hear from you!)
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
Jack, I am so grateful to President Donald Trump. The secure border. President Dementia was a figurehead. It was Barry Sotero' 3 term. Jack, thank you for your great information. I read your column every day.
Do you happen to know what caused the initial border traffic spike in 2018-19 on the graph? I wasn't aware of that, but it seems curious under Trump. If not for the mountain that began in 2021, that prior foothill would look quite alarming in comparison to the long downward trend. I'm very interested in why the Democrat policy changed, because it didn't happen while Obama was in office--a fact neither party cares to talk about. Mayorkas knows, but he ain't telling yet. I think that large spike in 2018-19 is worth investigating, because the timing is so weird.