Federal authorities have achieved a full year without releasing a single migrant caught crossing the southwest border, but legal warfare from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and activist judges is stalling wall construction and threatening the security ordinary Americans depend on.
Preliminary Department of Homeland Security figures show Border Patrol recorded just 98,708 southwest border apprehensions in fiscal year 2026—a 95% plunge from the Biden-era average of 1.8 million. The New York Post reported that DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin toured a completed section of the Arizona border Thursday, touting 17 consecutive months of zero migrant releases. That is a stark reversal from the Biden years, when Mullin says between 500,000 and 1 million migrants were apprehended and released in that Arizona stretch alone—though he admitted the exact number may never be known due to the previous administration’s spotty records.
For the communities left to absorb that surge, the cost was immediate. Retired Yuma Sector Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem told Fox News that in December 2021, daily arrivals spiked from 25 to roughly 1,000. "They just started walking through the agriculture fields. They started running through town," Clem said. "They started going to the food bank. They started knocking on people’s doors at all hours of the nights." He added that agents were outnumbered 100 to one, and the promise of release was the cartels' best sales pitch: "If you get to the border, you’re gonna be processed, and you’ll be let go."
While enforcement is working, the infrastructure to sustain it is under legal siege. Mullin blamed a wave of lawsuits brought by environmental groups and anti-Trump politicians—specifically naming Newsom—for pushing wall completion back to the end of 2027. He previously estimated it would be finished by June of next year. "National security should be first. We want to be good stewards of the land too," Mullin said. "But because we have these activist judges, because we have areas like that, it’s slowing down our ability to gain access to some of this land."
The constitutional friction runs deeper than the wall. Mullin slammed sanctuary policies in California and New York, arguing they actively undermine federal law and public safety. "The sanctuary cities and sanctuary states do nothing to help people’s lives out," he said. "They actually cause more problems and take freedom away." He noted that federal authorities have caught 2,268 known terrorists entering the country illegally since Trump returned to office, stressing that "every single murder that takes place at the hands of an illegal is 100% preventable."
Yet the enforcement gains remain fragile. Clem warned that a shift in congressional control could jam up policy through funding decisions, and a future administration could reverse the progress entirely. The border is being secured by executive action while state officials sue to keep it open—leaving Americans to wonder if the next election will re-open the floodgates before the wall is ever finished.
