It is astounding what words of strength from an American president can do to fix many issues.
After four years of what many believe was the weakest border policy in United States history, which saw Southern border crossings get to crisis levels, President Donald Trump has changed everything.
Customs and Border Protection data shows that border crossings have fallen a whopping 90 percent from the same period one year prior, with a mere 359 illegal migrants being processed each day, The New York Post reported.
“That puts the US on track to have the lowest monthly border crossings in at least 25 years. If the trend continues, the number of illegal migrants coming into the US could hit a level not seen since 1968, nearly 60 years ago,” the report said.
Center for Immigration Studies executive director Mark Krikorian told The Post that the border crossings are the lowest that the United States has seen “in almost a lifetime.”
“If you kind of break down the numbers, divide them by 365, we haven’t had numbers this low since the 1960s. So we’re talking 60-year lows if it’s sustained, obviously,” the executive director said.
The data showed that through February 11, only 3,953 illegal migrants had been encountered at the southern border, which, if those numbers continue, would bring the total in the month to around 10,000, a number that has never been achieved since the CBP began tracking this data in 1999.
Not coincidentally, the closest that number ever got to 10,000 was in April 2017, during the first Trump presidency, when monthly crossings were just over 11,000, the report said.
“That’s a very, very low number,” Pew Research Center associate director John Gramlich said.
At this same time last year, southern border crossing encounters averaged around 4,850 daily.
Terrell County, Texas, Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland told the post that his office is usually inundated with calls about illegal migrant crossings at this time of the year because of the colder weather, but not this year.
“It’s a relief,” he said. “We’ve gone from one extreme to the other extreme, historic levels of people crossing, historic levels of the low apprehensions. It’s very surprising.”
A Border Patrol source told The Post that the change in culture is palpable and that migrants have gotten the message.
“Already in the last few weeks a message is being sent out that the border isn’t going to be trampled over anymore, that national security isn’t a joke to us,” they said.
Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks, who appeared on “Fox & Friends,” attributed the results to the change in leadership.
“US Border Patrol knows how to get the job done. We know how to secure the border,” the chief said.
“All we needed was a president that was going to empower us — a strong leader like President Trump — and a secretary like Secretary Noem that knows exactly what we need to do to secure the border,” he said.
It is likely also due to leadership from border czar Tom Homan, who is actually doing the job and who has made it known that leaking information about raids will no longer be tolerated.
Homan said that the FBI leaked information about upcoming raids that would target illegal immigrants and said that those responsible would go to jail.
“We think it’s coming from inside,” he said, speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News, referring to leaks to the media about recent ICE raids in Colorado.
Homan also said that the FBI was to blame for the leak of information about a big raid that was going to happen in California before the end of the month. He said, “Some of the information we are receiving tends towards the FBI.”
Homan said it was “only a matter of time” before the leaks hurt officers. He said it was possible that “bad guys” were waiting for the officers to arrive and set them up.
Hannity asked Homan how certain he was that the FBI was involved, to which the border czar replied, “I talked to the deputy attorney general this week, and they’ve opened up a criminal investigation. He thinks the information is coming from [the FBI].”