BORDER SECURITY

We’ll start with proposals to build a better fence to secure the border. The proposals that Congress is actively considering include literal physical barriers, deploying technology along the border, and changing the policies by which immigrants can request asylum at the border.

Before the 1960s, it had been relatively easy for the US government to fulfill its fundamental role in securing our borders from illegal entry. Securing the southern border has become much more challenging since then.

MORE ILLEGAL CROSSINGS

From 1960 to 1980, the number of encounters with immigrants attempting to cross the southern border without authorization rose from hundreds per year to about 800,000, as shown in the chart. From 1980 to 2020, the number of encounters varied considerably year to year. From 2020 to 2023, we experienced the most dramatic increase in our history. Border encounters increased from under half a million in 2020 to a record 2.4 million in 2023. Since then, encounters have declined nearly to the pre-1960 levels. The turnaround began in 2024, the last year of the Biden Administration, when the numbers dropped to one million. In 2025 and 2026, under the second Trump Administration, the pace dropped to less than 500,000 per year.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) provided $85 billion for border security to help achieve the current levels. Since it necessarily changed little about border security policy as a budget bill, future administrations could significantly change course. Now, Congress is considering legislation to establish a lasting, effective fence.

BORDER SECURITY AND ASYLUM

The goal of more permanent border security necessarily raises the issue of asylum reform. The system that allows immigrants to request asylum so that they can stay in the US because of their fear of persecution if they returned to their home country was established in 1980. Since then, asylum requests have shifted from a rare legal safety net into an important driver of border activity. When asylum rules are relaxed, they act as a magnet, encouraging migrants to surrender to Border Patrol agents in hopes of being released into the US pending a court date. When those rules are tightened—through stricter eligibility or immediate removals—border encounters drop.

The Biden Administration’s relaxation of several asylum restrictions from the first Trump Administration contributed to the surge in border encounters from 2021 to 2023.

Three other factors contributed to the surge in that period even more.

  1. Unemployment Pull from the North—Historically low levels of unemployment in the US created a strong demand for additional workers.
  2. Growing Unemployed Working-Age Population Push from the South—Growth in the number of working-age people without jobs during a time of unusually high economic and political instability in many Latin American countries propelled workers to seek jobs in the US at historic levels.
  3. End of COVID Pandemic—The lockdowns and border closures suppressed migration, creating pent-up demand that was released with the pandemic’s end.

In response to the border crisis, the Biden Administration reversed course and tightened asylum limits in 2024. Those measures, followed by even tighter Trump Administration asylum restrictions in 2025 and 2026, have contributed to the current low levels of border incursions.

We now turn to specific proposals to secure the border beyond the Trump Administration. We start with the literal fence, move to technological protections, and conclude with asylum reform.