Former Border Patrol chief recalls Biden migrant surge chaos as Trump crackdown delivers historic turnaround

President Donald Trump ’s border crackdown has sharply reduced the illegal crossings that overwhelmed agents under former President Joe Biden, with the Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ) reporting Thursday historic lows in apprehensions and a full fiscal year without Border Patrol releasing migrants into the country.

For retired Yuma Arizona Sector U.S.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem, the turnaround stands in sharp contrast to days when his agents could not pick up migrants fast enough and the consequences spilled into neighborhoods, farms and local businesses.

"They just started walking through the agriculture fields.

They started running through town," Clem told Fox News Digital, recalling the surge in December 2021.

"They started going to the food bank.

They started knocking on people’s doors at all hours of the nights." TRUMP ADMIN MARKS 15 STRAIGHT MONTHS WITH ZERO BORDER RELEASES AS APPREHENSIONS PLUNGE 94% But while Clem said he credits stronger enforcement and the prospect of deportation with helping drive the decline, he warned that the gains could face another threat — a political shift in Washington.

"There are a lot of policy decisions that can be really jammed up by a Congress that’s gung-ho to overturn what this president has done," said Clem, who warned that changes in congressional control could complicate enforcement through funding decisions and policy restrictions, while a future presidential administration could pursue broader reversals.

Preliminary DHS figures released Thursday show Border Patrol recorded 98,708 southwest border apprehensions in fiscal year 2026, roughly 95% below the annual average of more than 1.8 million during the Biden administration.

That translates to about 270 apprehensions a day across the southwest border, compared with roughly 5,000 using the department’s Biden-era annual average.

In Yuma alone, Clem recalled daily arrivals climbing from roughly 25 in December 2020, to more than 1,000 by December 2021.

During a particularly difficult three-day stretch that month, he said, daily arrivals approached 1,500.

TRUMP HITS DRAMATIC MILESTONE IN MASSIVE DEPARTURE FROM BIDEN BORDER PLAN: 'WHAT A DIFFERENCE' Weather problems and a shortage of resources compounded the strain, leaving agents struggling to transport people from the border, he said.

"That was really when it, you know, was the most critical for me because we had the true community impact of a failed border security policy out of Washington, D.C.," Clem said.