Trump DHS hits 16 straight months with 0 releases at the border

FIRST ON FOX – President Donald Trump's administration marked 16 consecutive months of making zero releases at the U.S.-Mexican border on Wednesday.

The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced the unprecedented record in a statement to Fox News Digital. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the streak proves that President Donald Trump's policies "are working."

"Catch and release is over, consequences are back, and illegal crossings have fallen to historic lows. President Trump made a promise to the American people that he would make America safe again, and he has done just that by giving us the most secure border in American history," Mullin said.

"Border security starts with knowing who and what is entering our country – and controlling it on behalf of the American people," said CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott. "That means people who cross illegally are apprehended, detained and removed – not released into the United States. Our agents are enforcing that standard every day."

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U.S. Border Patrol said it apprehended 8,870 people along the Southwest border in August, which is 5% lower than July.

The August apprehension numbers were 94% lower than the average month under former President Joe Biden. DHS also says it made zero parole releases in August, compared to the Border Patrol releasing over 10,000 in August 2024 under Biden.

Other law enforcement numbers at the border remain strong as well, with fiscal year drug seizures up 73% compared to the same fiscal period under Biden in 2024. Drug seizures are also up 61% compared to the average of the past four years.

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The rise in drug seizures comes largely from cocaine and precursor chemicals. Cocaine seizures increased 28% in August to 6,724 pounds, while CBP and ICE seized over 120,000 pounds of precursor chemicals in the same month.

The August numbers come the same month the Trump administration began construction of a section of a border wall in Arizona despite objections from a Native American tribe.

MULLIN TELLS CONGRESS PRIMARY BORDER WALL WILL BE DONE BY JUNE 2027, SECONDARY WALL BY SUMMER 2028

The wall is part of a $46 billion effort to shore up the southern border with 30-foot steel bollard walls, vehicle barriers and technology designed to stop illegal immigration and smuggling.

However, the Tohono O'odham Nation sued the administration earlier this year, saying the construction will damage land sacred to the tribe.

A federal judge rejected the argument, siding with the government and noting that the border wall would be built on a 60-foot-wide buffer zone of federally owned land called the Roosevelt Reservation.

"Defendants have not yet articulated plans to construct outside the Roosevelt Reservation," U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., wrote in his opinion.

Fox News' Peter D'Abrosca and The Associated Press contributed to this report.