Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Feb. 18 showed that the number of illegal immigrants encountered by Border Patrol on the southern border fell to 60,000 in January, down from 96,000 in December and down from over 300,000 in December 2023, the height of the Biden border crisis.

This decline in border encounters shows President Donald Trump was right on three key claims he made in the debate over border policy: 1) enforcement works, 2) former President Joe Biden’s policies caused the crisis, and 3) congressional action was not needed to end it.