The US has promised their nationwide illegal migrant crackdown “is just the beginning” as nearly 500,000 people have been deported in Donald Trump’s first year back in office. Illegal border crossings have slumped to their lowest rate in 50 years as Ice and other federal agencies have arrested more than 457,000 illegal migrants so far this year. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin has hailed the US President and Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security Secretary, for “jumpstart[ing] an agency that was vilified and barred from doing its job for the last four years”.
Agents have made “historic progress to carry out President Trump’s promise of arresting and deporting illegal aliens who have invaded our country”, she said. The DHS have deported more than 493,000 illegal immigrants so far in 2025, and an additional 1.6 million have voluntarily “self-deported”, the New York Post reports.
“Illegal aliens are hearing our message to leave now or face the consequence,” Ms McLaughlin said. “Migrants are now even turning back before they reach our borders.”
Since Mr Trump’s inauguration, there have been fewer than 9,000 illegal crossings recorded each month, as Ice declared that “the era of open borders is over”.
At the US-Mexico border, illegal crossings have plummeted to the lowest rate in more than 50 years, according to CBS News.
Mr Trump’s migrant crackdown is a stark comparison to former president Joe Biden. Only 271,000 illegal migrants were removed in his final year in office – fewer than half of the number of deportees under the current US President so far this year.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told GB News: “President Trump has overwhelmingly delivered on his promise to secure our southern border and is now carrying out the largest mass deportation operation of criminal illegal aliens in history.
“As a result, Americans are safer – unvetted criminal illegal aliens and dangerous drugs are no longer pouring over our border unchecked.
“And for all the Democrats who claimed it was impossible to secure the border or that they needed new policy, turns out all we needed was a new President.”