What Is the Truth About Border Crossings?

Most American citizens accept that the border is more secure today than it was on January 19, 2025, when Donald J. Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States (POTUS). Virginia Allen of The Daily Signal interviewed Walter Slosar, the Interim Chief for the El Paso Sector to ask him about the border. Slosar “served in the Border Patrol under six different presidential administrations.” 

Slosar claims that the border is the “most secure border we’ve ever had.” He said that he is “not satisfied” with the success at the border, but he is proud of the fact that “encounters have fallen so low.”

The Border Patrol chief explained that an average of about nine illegal aliens [is] still managing to evade apprehension every day in the El Paso Sector.

“Those are nine people that we don’t know who they are, [what] their intentions are, and so, we’re really focused on getting that number to zero,” Slosar said.

“Criminal, foreign terrorist organizations, transnational criminal organizations, they’re still trying to profit” by sneaking people and drugs across the border, he explained. The change now, according to Slosar, is those criminals are running from Border Patrol,” whereas [during] the previous three, four years, they were looking for us.”

During the administration of President Joe Biden, “criminal organizations made sure that [illegal aliens] were able to come across, use the asylum laws as a way to stay here, have a court date years in advance, but right now, ‘catch and release,’ it’s over,” the chief said.

‘Catch and release’ was the policy of apprehending illegal aliens at the border and paroling them into the U.S. until their asylum court date. President Donald Trump ended the practice during his first administration, but Biden permitted the practice to resume under his administration.

The El Paso Sector Border Patrol estimates the changes at the border in the past eight months, especially the end of “Catch and release,” has cost the criminal cartels over $1 billion. That loss of revenue is driving the cartels to rely on new or varied tactics to smuggle people and drugs into the U.S., according to Slosar.

The cartels are digging tunnels under the border wall, using drones to monitor the location of Border Patrol agents, and looking for weak points along the border to cross. But as the cartels employ new tactics, Slosar says Border Patrol is also adapting and working to employ new technology to further heighten “domain awareness.”

New technology, such as cameras, sensors, and aerial assets, are key to combating the current threats at the border, he explained.

“We’re continuing to develop technology and employ technology,” he said, adding that “a lot of that is going to be able to come in with the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ and the money that we’re about to receive, or we’ve [already] received.” …

The physical border wall also creates a deterrent for illegal crossings. More wall has, and continues to be, installed along the southern border with Mexico. Additionally, DHS has announced plans to paint the border wall black as a further deterrent to illegal immigration.

The steel beams of the border wall stand up to 30 feet high in some locations, and in the sun, can reach temperatures of between 150 to 180 degrees, according to Slosar. “I recommend that nobody touch it, to include criminal organizations, when it’s hot like that,” he said. A black wall will get even hotter, creating another deterrent.