Well before President Donald Trump took office last month, illegal crossings had decreased. The Associated Press went on a ride-along with U.S. Border Patrol in McAllen, Texas. No arrests were made in the five-hour long patrol. Things were similarly calm last month in San Diego, which was the busiest corridor for illegal crossings much of the last year. In a six-hour-long ride-along, Border Patrol apprehended only a handful of migrants they came across in the last half hour. It's a stark contrast to the image of chaos along the border that has been propelled by politicians. Border arrests were elevated in the first three years of the Biden administration. But they fell sharply in the year before Trump took office. Illegal border crossings reached an all-time high of 250,000 in December 2023, but dropped significantly to about 47,000 last December.