SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Veterans who have volunteered to help secure the border in Southern California say there has been an incredible difference in what they have seen since President Donald Trump took office in January.
“There has been such an amazing difference between what was going on during the Biden administration versus what’s going on under the Trump administration” said Kate Monroe, a Marine Corps veteran who became the founder of Border Vets, a group of U.S. military veterans who have given their own time and money to patch up holes in the border barrier in Southern California.
The comments come as Trump has continued his push to secure the southern border, seeking to make good on a promise that became a cornerstone of his third campaign for president.
The data seemingly indicates Trump has made good on that campaign promise, with the number of southern border encounters last month hitting lows not seen in about a quarter-century last month, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data that was first reported by Axios.
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CBP agents apprehended roughly 8,300 people attempting to illegally cross the border in February, the data showed, the lowest monthly total recorded since fiscal 2000. The data also showed that CBP encounters with illegal migrants attempting to cross the border dropped sharply from this time last year, with the agency recording just shy of 30,000 encounters last month, a drop from 130,000 in February 2023 and 2024.
Members of the Border Vets have noticed the difference, telling Fox News Digital that they have observed a drastic decrease in people crossing the border in this once-busy sector.
“Things are getting better down at the border,” one Marine veteran who volunteers for Border Vets told Fox News Digital.
The area of border these veterans patrol is largely near Jacumba Hot Springs, California, a secluded area about 70 miles east of San Diego. One such area of Jacumba Hot Springs that was noticeably quiet on Tuesday was the previously infamous “San Judas Break,” a hole in the border barrier that had seen more than 3,000 migrants per week spill through as recently as last year.
Monroe, who at that time last year was the Republican candidate for California’s 49th Congressional District, decided to take it upon herself to patch the border hole, enlisting a group of veterans to put up a makeshift barrier of razor wire that effectively closed off the small gap.
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“I felt the anger and frustrations of millions of fellow Americans watching in horror as thousands of people poured through,” Monroe told Fox News Digital last February, noting that the gap her organization helped patch once allowed “terrorists, drugs, and human trafficking to infiltrate while local and national city economies bear the burden of supporting these migrants.”
Monroe’s volunteer act quickly went viral and spawned the creation of Border Vets, which has since gone on to plug multiple holes in Southern California’s barrier between the U.S. and Mexico.
Border agents have largely welcomed the help of the volunteer group, according to one agent who anonymously spoke with Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
Both CBP agents and Border Vets members told Fox News Digital that they have personally witnessed a sharp decrease in attempted crossings since Trump took office, leaving a once-busy sector suddenly quiet after the record crossings of the few years prior.
“There used to be hundreds of people crossing every time I came, 1741878493 not a one,” Monroe said. “The difference has been absolutely amazing. I feel like our national security is getting less and less at risk by the day.”
At another area of the Jacumba Hot Springs border with Mexico, a makeshift shelter set up by non-governmental organizations that once housed migrants daily sat empty on Tuesday, a sign of the quickly changing situation at the border.
Nevertheless, members of the Border Vets say they are remaining vigilant, continuing to check in on known soft spots along the border in an attempt to keep the flow of illegal crossings at its current lows.
“Secure the border, plain and simple,” a Navy veteran member of Border Vets explained when asked by Fox News Digital what motivated him to come out to the border on Tuesday. “This is the United States of America, and an open border policy that we’ve dealt with for the last four years has been nothing but a detriment to the country.”
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