(The Center Square) – In President Donald Trump’s first year in office, illegal border crossers in one year in California plummeted, and nearly equaled the number of gotaways Border Patrol agents reported in California in previous years.
They also represent between 25% to 35% of illegal entries reported in California in previous years, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data and gotaway data obtained by The Center Square.
In fiscal 2025, 137,917 illegal border crossers were apprehended in California, excluding gotaways, according to CBP data. The fiscal year goes from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
In 2025, total apprehensions in California were roughly one-third more than the number of gotaways Border Patrol agents reported in California in fiscal 2023 of more than 101,300, The Center Square reported.
Fiscal 2025 apprehensions significantly dropped from more than 562,000 reported in California in fiscal 2024, more than 450,000 in fiscal 2023 and more than 362,000 in fiscal 2022, according to the data.
The totals exclude gotaways, the official CBP term for those who illegally enter between ports of entry to evade capture, don’t file immigration claims, and don’t return to Mexico. CBP doesn’t publicly report this data. The Center Square obtained gotaway data from Border Patrol agents, reporting it each month during the Biden administration. At least two million gotaways were reported during the Biden administration nationwide, The Center Square exclusively reported.
Many gotaways are known to have criminal records, some are on the terrorist watchlist, and many have previously been deported, law enforcement officers told The Center Square.
Border Patrol agents from California testified before Congress that an unknown number of gotaways, likely including terrorists, human and drug smugglers, illegally entered the U.S. in California because its border was largely unpatrolled during the height of the border crisis, The Center Square reported.
As Texas border security efforts increased in 2024 through Operation Lone Star, illegal crossings moved west, increasing in New Mexico, Arizona and California, The Center Square reported. In December 2022, Texas accounted for 60% of all cross-border traffic across the entire southwest border. Texas shares 1,954 miles with Mexico.
This included San Diego Sector Border Patrol experiencing a massive influx, becoming the “center of gravity” of the border crisis. California shares 137 miles with Mexico, divided nearly evenly between two CBP sectors, El Centro and San Diego.
By January 2024, Texas’ share of illegal crossings dropped to roughly 30% of the southwest border total, Texas’ former Border Czar Mike Banks told The Center Square. Banks is now the chief of Border Patrol for the Trump administration.
With new Trump and Banks border security measures in place, by May of this year, CBP closed a “migrant processing facility” in the San Diego Sector used by the Biden administration to facilitate illegal entry into the U.S., The Center Square reported.
By the first two months of fiscal 2026, the San Diego Sector reported 1,793 apprehensions, a 93% drop from 24,735 apprehensions reported in the same two months last year.
The sector hasn’t seen these numbers since the 1960s, CBP says.
San Diego Chief Border Patrol Agent Justin De La Torre said the drop was in large part due to ending Biden administration “catch and release” policies, increased support from the U.S. Attorney’s Office to prosecute illegal border crosser crime, implementing expedited removal and expanded construction of the border wall, barriers and technology.
“By no longer releasing people into the U.S., we have removed the incentive for those considering illegal entry via smuggling routes,” La Torre said. “We no longer have people illegally entering and surrendering to agents, expecting to be released, which allows Border Patrol agents to return to patrol and interdiction efforts rather than processing and releasing hundreds of illegal aliens a day.”
“Less money is going to the criminal organizations that facilitate human smuggling and generate violence in Mexico,” he said. “We are now seeing far fewer people being exploited and endangering their lives by using criminal smuggling networks to illegally enter the country.”
The Trump administration began constructing an additional 14 miles of border wall along the California-Mexico border this year, The Center Square reported. It also surged National Guard and Coast Guard resources to support border security in California.
It’s also cracking down on dismantling Mexican cartel-dug tunnels used to smuggle drugs, weapons, people and other illicit contraband, The Center Square reported. The Sinaloa Cartel, which has controlled the Mexican region south of San Diego for decades, has long used a tunnel system to reach the San Diego area, authorities have told The Center Square.
Since 1993, San Diego Border Patrol agents have found more than 95 tunnels in the area and destroyed them by pouring thousands of gallons of concrete inside.
