US Vice President JD Vance has credited President Donald Trump ’s immigration policies for a sharp decline in illegal immigration, claiming more than three million migrants have left the country during Trump’s second term and that Border Patrol recorded zero migrant releases into the US interior during fiscal year 2026.
Vance said FY2026 marked the first fiscal year in US history with zero Border Patrol releases, referring to apprehended migrants not being released into the country’s interior while their immigration cases proceeded. The administration has largely ended the practice commonly known as catch-and-release, under which some migrants apprehended at the border were temporarily released into the US. “Turns out all we needed was a new President! Vance wrote, listing what he described as the administration’s achievements in immigration enforcement. The vice president’s remarks come as border security and deportations remain central to Trump’s second-term immigration agenda. The administration has repeatedly highlighted declining apprehensions and the end of migrant releases as evidence of tougher enforcement.
In a post on X, Vance said the administration had gone 17 consecutive months without releasing apprehended undocumented migrants into the country’s interior, describing the figures as evidence of a major shift in border enforcement. The vice president said total Border Patrol apprehensions during FY2026 stood at 98,708, a figure he claimed was lower than the Biden administration’s highest monthly apprehension total of 249,740.
