Trump's Immigration Crackdown: Do Low Arrests Indicate Failure or Success?

U.S. Border Patrol arrested 29,000 unauthorized immigrants at the border in January, the lowest since May 2020. Are the low arrest numbers from border patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids indicators of success or failure in President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown?

The Numbers: An Axios (Lean Left bias) article said, “Trump's immigration arrests appear to lag Biden's,” citing that 14,000 have been arrested since Trump took office compared to 21,000 in November. However, the 14,000 number it referenced refers to only ICE arrests, while the 21,000 includes arrests by both ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). In November, ICE arrested 7,500 while 13,500 were CBP arrests. Axios acknowledged this difference about halfway through a separate article. But border arrests are also down by other metrics, possibly driven by a lack of border crossings resulting from Trump's rhetoric and policies. 

Coverage From The Right: Outlets on the right framed the drop as a sign of success. The Epoch Times (Lean Right bias) highlighted border czar Tom Homan's comment that “Trump pledged a secure border, and he is delivering on that promise.” The Washington Examiner (Lean Right) added that CBP attributed the decline to taking “every reasonable step to ensure illegal aliens are placed in detention and expediently removed from the country.” 

Coverage From The Left: NBC News (Lean Left) highlighted the lack of financial resources for deportations. The Washington Post (Lean Left) added that although ICE is low on money, Trump mobilized other agencies to help ICE “with the urgency of a wartime effort” yet it's still “falling far short of the administration’s goals.” At the border, the Post highlighted that Trump sent hundreds of active duty soldiers to Texas, but given that the border has been quieter since Trump's election, “it’s not clear to them why they are needed now.”