The Trump administration on Monday celebrated its achievements in border security ahead of President Donald Trump’s 100 days in office.
Monday's statement comes as Trump is set to mark the 100-day milestone of his second term on Tuesday.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a CBS interview on Monday that agents have seen a major change at the southern border compared to their experience under the Biden administration.
In Trump's first 50 days, ICE arrested 32,809 illegal immigrants, the White House said. Nearly 75 percent of those illegal immigrants were accused or convicted criminals. The White House also pointed out that the number of arrests is about the same as the number of arrests over President Joe Biden’s final year in office.
The number of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children also reached a record low under Trump. At its peak low under the previous administration, 4.6 percent of illegal border crossings were unaccompanied minors who were mostly trafficking victims. In the first two weeks of March 2025, just 0.4 percent of illegal crossings consisted of unaccompanied minors.
Trump has also "restarted construction of his signature advanced border wall," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday. Leavitt said 85 miles of new border barrier are currently being planned or constructed.
Trump signed executive orders aiming to target illegal immigration on his first day in office.
Immigration has emerged as one of Trump’s strongest issues in public polling.
“America’s changed,” pollster Frank Luntz said. “This is the one area where Donald Trump still has significant and widespread public support.”
Luntz said voters dismayed by the historically large influx of migrants under Biden are now “prepared to accept a more extreme approach.”
“Make no mistake. The public may not embrace it, but they definitely support it. And this is actually his strongest area as he approaches his 100th day (in office)," Luntz said.
Nonetheless, Trump's immigration policies have prompted many legal challenges.
In one example, a federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to turn over the names of any migrants flown recently from the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay to El Salvador so he could determine whether they were deported in violation of his court order.
In a separate case involving illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to provide information on its efforts so far, if any, to secure his release. The order, however, was temporarily halted on April 24. Abrego Garcia has been at the center of a high-profile deportation case, prompting a group of Democrats to travel to El Salvador in an attempt to push the government to free him. The White House has maintained, however, that the case is out of its hands since he is in the custody of a foreign government.
The administration said this is only the beginning of Trump's immigration enforcement.