By Brendan Scanland
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump is approaching his 100th day in office, and the administration is touting progress on one of Trump’s cornerstone campaign promises: the Southern Border.
Border security and fentanyl trafficking were defining issues throughout the 2024 Presidential Election, and according to U.S. Border Patrol officials, a lot has changed at the border in just a few months.
In an exclusive interview, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks described a dramatic shift in operations and morale since the Trump administration took over.
“The United States Border Patrol knows how to secure the border. We just need to be empowered to enforce the laws that are already on the books, not necessarily policies that were created by the previous administration that really subverted those laws,” Banks said.
It’s the dawn of a new era for Chief Mike Banks and the U.S. Border Patrol.
“Really, the roles went from day care — pretty much being care providers for massive amounts of illegal immigrants — to actually going back to doing what we’re trained to do, which is law enforcement,” he said. “Now that we’re not locked inside of these facilities processing, we’re actually out there doing law enforcement work.”
Border Patrol land encounters with migrants illegally crossing between ports of entry peaked near 250,000 in late 2023. By the end of 2024, that number dropped to just over 47,000. In March of the current fiscal year, those land encounters were 7,181 — roughly 3% of the levels seen 15 months ago.
“When you have laws, the probability of being apprehended for violating those laws and then a consequence for violating those laws, it sends a very clear message that illegal immigration is not going to be tolerated,” said Banks. “We are a nation of laws. If you want to come here, you need to come here the legal way… but you’re not going to cross illegally and expect not to suffer a consequence for that.”
While illegal crossings are down, fentanyl seizures remain high — and in some cases, are increasing. Banks said that’s a sign of progress, not failure.
“The cartel, they’re ruthless. But they’ve got a pretty good business model, they understand risk versus reward, and they’re not going to push hard narcotics, high value narcotics through small corridors that are heavily controlled when they have a wide open border,” said Banks. “As we’re shutting down that border and taking back control of it, you’re seeing those narcotic seizures go up outside the port of entries and down at the port of entries,” he explained.
“It’s a clear sign to me that this is what’s been allowed to happen for the last four years. And we’re not going to allow that to continue happening,” he added.
Banks said Border Patrol is receiving funding and assistance from the Pentagon, FBI, ATF, and other federal agencies as it awaits Congressional approval of a multi-trillion-dollar budget bill — dubbed by President Trump as his “one big, beautiful bill.”
“We absolutely need this budget bill,” Banks said. “The resources in the Border Patrol have been depleted significantly. Money that was supposed to be used and that was allocated for things like vehicles for training new agents, for facilities, for infrastructure– that was all taken and used to funnel mass migration, illegal immigration into the country. The good news is we’re not doing that anymore. So we’re applying those fundings toward what they need to go. But we’re way behind in where we need to be,” he added.
Banks emphasized the need for comprehensive immigration reform but stressed that border security is paramount.
“You’ve got to enforce border security first. And then you create the corrections and the new policies to immigration,” he said. “Immigration and border security should be completely separate. Immigration should take place in a port of entry through proper application. Border security is anything that’s going to cross illegally in between those ports of entry, and that’s what we’re focused on.”
