On Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance took a victory tour along the Southern Border. He praised a dramatic drop in border encounters, which he directly attributed to Trump’s policies.
Vance, along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabrield, visited the border at Eagle Pass in Texas. The group met with Texas officials, including Governor Abbott. Greg Abbott took part in an aerial border tour and observed the recently constructed border wall.
Vance referred to remarks Donald Trump had made Tuesday in a speech before the Joint session of Congress.
“It turns out we didn’t need new laws. We didn’t need fancy legislation. We just needed a new President of the United States. And thank God, that’s exactly what we have,” Vance said.
They also visited the Border Patrol’s detention center before taking part in a round table discussion with participants from both local and national levels.
Hegseth said, “Border Security is National Security,” before his trip. “We are sending them home and not letting any more people in,” Hegseth said. You can see it right now.
Vance cited statistics showing that the number of border crossings has dropped from 1,500 per day to 30, and there is an 85% drop in deaths at the border.
Every day we keep the border secure, it means less crime committed by migrants. This means that less fentanyl will enter our communities. This means greater safety and security to the citizens of the United States of America”, he stated.
“Our mission is very clear. Our objective is to keep the American people safe,” Gabbard said, highlighting the president’s designation of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Trump’s campaign was based on the idea of cracking down on illegal immigration. He had issued executive orders declaring a national crisis at the border and deploying the military. The president also ordered that the border wall be rebuilt, and Biden’s parole policy was ended.
Pentagon deployed troops quickly and opened Guantanamo to migrants. Homeland Security increased the use of rapid removal and removed restrictions on interior enforcement. The State Department also secured more cooperation from countries for the return of migrants.
This is in addition to a campaign of interior enforcement that led to thousands of arrests throughout the nation, including “sanctuary cities”.
There were only 8,326 encounters at the southern border in February. This is down from 189,913 in February 2024. So far, the administration has removed more than 55,000 undocumented immigrants from the U.S..
A Border Patrol official said there were only 271 encounters on the southern border Tuesday and 14 of those in the Del Rio Sector, where Vance will be visiting.
Trump mentioned a decrease in the number of crossings when he spoke on Tuesday night.
“Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border, and I deployed the U.S. military and Border Patrol to repel the invasion of our country. And what a job they’ve done. As a result, illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded, ever,” he said.
They chose not to come after hearing my words.