(The Center Square) – Another “migrant processing facility” has been closed at the southwest border, this time in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection San Diego Sector.
“Due to the unprecedented decrease in illegal crossings this year, the massive 1,000 person, San Diego Sector Soft Sided Facility has been dismantled,” San Diego Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Jeffrey Stalnaker announced. In March 2025, San Diego Sector Border Patrol agents arrested 1,199 illegal border crossers, an average of 38 a day, a 186% drop from apprehensions reported in March 2024, he said.
Last year, the sector became the epicenter of illegal border crossings under the Biden administration after Texas’ first border czar, and now U.S. Border Patrol Chief, Mike Banks, implemented a strategy to drastically reduce illegal border crossing in Texas, The Center Square first reported.
California saw illegal entries totaling more than half a million in each of the last two years of the Biden administration, The Center Square exclusively reported.
California shares the smallest international border with Mexico of the four southwest border states – 137 miles. It’s nearly evenly split in linear land mileage between the CBP sectors of El Centro and San Diego.
The San Diego Sector is the largest of the two sectors, covering nearly 57,000 square miles, including 931 miles of coastal border stretching to Oregon. It shares 60 linear miles with Mexico by land and 114 coastal miles along the Pacific Ocean.
The area with the greatest foot traffic includes roughly 7,000 square miles that encompasses beaches, mesas, an inland mountain range, canyons and high desert.
In April, the Trump administration also began expanding border wall construction in California after already expanding wall construction in Texas, The Center Square reported.
Along with other Trump administration policies, Banks reinstituted policies to halt illegal crossing across the southwest border, which has also seen a roughly 90% drop in illegal crossings in the first few months of the administration, The Center Square reported.
San Diego illegal crossings plummeted after federal and state facilities used to detain and process illegal border crossers began being closed in Texas in March. The state of Texas closed a jail facility being used by law enforcement officers working in Texas’ border security mission, Operation Lone Star. CBP also closed three facilities in Donna, Eagle Pass and Laredo, The Center Square reported.
Under the Trump administration, Border Patrol “is getting out of the care and custody business, allowing agents to get back to patrolling the border,” Banks said. “By ending reliance on Soft-Sided Facilities, USBP is avoiding over $45 million per month in costs! With a dramatic drop in illegal traffic, the tents are no longer needed. This milestone marks significant progress in operational efficiency and cost savings for the American people.”
