For the 10th month in a row, no illegal aliens were released into the United States from the border, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“Ten straight months of ZERO illegal aliens released at the border. President Donald Trump promised to secure the Border, and that is a promise we delivered,” outgoing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Thursday.
The announcement comes amid a sustained decrease in apprehensions at the border. Border encounters fell by 22% in February from January and are down 88% compared with the monthly average during the Biden administration, according to DHS.
Border Patrol’s apprehensions of illegal aliens between ports of entry at the southern border are 92% lower than the average over the past 33 years, DHS reports, noting that the “number of U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions per day in February was less than a single hour during the height of the Biden administration.”
“We have the most secure border in American history. Our borders are CLOSED to lawbreakers,” Noem added.
Noem is preparing to exit DHS following Trump’s announcement in early March that he had tapped Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin to become the new homeland security secretary. Noem’s second-to-last month as secretary marked the highest number of drug seizures since October 2021, according to the agency.
In February, Customs and Border Protection apprehended 79,609 pounds of drugs, including a 67% increase in fentanyl apprehensions since January.
“While threats to our national and economic security continue to evolve, so does our resolve to meet them, as we carry out our mission of protecting the homeland while facilitating lawful travel and trade,” CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said.
The homeland security agency, which oversees trade and tariff enforcement and seeks to protect U.S. supply chains, seized more than 400 shipments of counterfeit goods valued at more than $580 million in February and stopped more than 260 shipments for potential forced labor violations.
Noem took over the agency in January 2025. Trump’s decision to replace her with Mullin follows the controversial immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis, as well as reports that the president was upset with Noem’s testimony before Congress.
Trump has appointed Noem to be the special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, which he described as a “new security initiative in the Western Hemisphere.”