Border apprehensions along the southwest border hit another new low last month, despite following a record low the previous month. It turns out all we needed was a new president.
The southern border has largely gone quiet.
United States Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks posted to X on Friday that southwest border apprehensions hit a monthly record low in July, with only 4,399 apprehensions. For the third month in a row, there have been zero releases…
In July, it averages out to 141 apprehensions per day at the southern border. At the height of the Biden-era crisis, there were 10,000-plus apprehensions on some days in December 2023.
This is such a dramatic decline. The southern border is effectively sealed up which must be having all sorts of secondary effects on the cartels that make money transporting people and drugs across the border. When you have 10,000 people crossing the border in a day and the border patrol is overtaxed, it’s going to be pretty easy to get anything or anyone across. When the number is 141, it’s a very different story. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks has been posting about recent seizures of drugs, money and the arrest of criminals crossing the border. For instance:
SEX OFFENDER CAUGHT!
7/26-In Del Rio, TX, USBP agents apprehended a Salvadoran national attempting to illegally enter the country. During processing, records revealed he is a registered sex offender in Texas!
🔸Arrested for aggravated sexual assault of a child (CONVICTED for… pic.twitter.com/JudWj5nifY
— Chief Michael W. Banks (@USBPChief) July 31, 2025
$2.3 MILLION WORTH OF COCAINE SEIZED!
7/26- A sharp-nosed USBP K9 alerted to an 18-wheeler arriving at the Javier Vega Jr. checkpoint that led to the discovery of 21 concealed bundles of cocaine. Further X-ray examination revealed 9 additional packages hidden within the roof… pic.twitter.com/3nsbtkY8i0
— Chief Michael W. Banks (@USBPChief) July 31, 2025
NEARLY $1.5M WORTH OF METH SEIZED!
7/23-A U.S. citizen arrived at the USBP checkpoint on Interstate 25 near Las Cruces, NM, exhibiting nervous behavior and agents took notice. This behavior made sense when a USBP K-9 quickly alerted to the vehicle. An inspection of the gas tank… pic.twitter.com/RlZ2mP4deW
— Chief Michael W. Banks (@USBPChief) July 30, 2025
Under pressure both from Mexico and the US, the cartels have been forced to make new alliances to survive.
The cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, has for years run a global empire built through alliances with criminal groups and affiliates from the Americas to New Zealand — reaping millions of dollars from smuggling drugs like fentanyl at a devastating toll, especially in the United States.
But the cartel has for months been torn by violence between two main factions, as Mexico, under pressure from the Trump administration, has moved aggressively against it.
In that turmoil, a faction of the cartel led by sons of the drug lord known as El Chapo have allied with an old and powerful adversary, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, according to four people familiar with the matter. The risky move by El Chapo’s sons could ultimately turn the Jalisco cartel into the world’s biggest drug trafficker — a shift that could potentially redraw alliances and power structures across international drug markets, analysts say…
The twist in the drug war underscored not just the back-stabbing nature of the cartels’ trade, but also how traffickers are adapting to the Trump administration’s aggressive push against them. The United States has put intense pressure on Mexico to curb the flow of fentanyl, and those efforts, combined with the cartel infighting, have pushed two criminal adversaries together.
There are also signs that the Mexican government’s complicity in the drug trade is coming to light.Â
Two former officials are on the run, accused of secretly leading a criminal group. Their old boss, now a powerful senator in the president’s party, is being grilled over what he knew.
And the timing could not be worse for Mexico’s president, who faces the corruption scandal as President Trump doubles down on accusations that drug cartels have the Mexican government in their grip.
At the scandal’s center is the senator, Adán Augusto López Hernández, a former interior minister and governor of Tabasco State, and a close confidante of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Two men Mr. López appointed in Tabasco, a secretary of security and state police chief, are now wanted by the Mexican government and Interpol, facing charges of leading a criminal group involved in drug trafficking.
Give President Trump credit. He’s taken the fentanyl crisis very seriously and has put the blame squarely on China and Mexico. Controlling the border is just one part of making real pushback on the cartels possible. Once we have order restored, which we do now, and the Border Patrol isn’t constantly struggling to keep up with an influx of new people, we can turn our attention to other goals like drug trafficking.
The cartels won’t give up of course, but it looks to me like the Trump administration is doing the work that could lead to a decline in fentanyl and other overdose deaths before he leaves office.
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Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left’s lies, new legislation wasn’t needed to secure our border, just a new president.
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