Photo courtesy of Borgenproject.com

MIAMI – The number of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. through the southern border was down in January after President Trump launched his immigration crackdown operation in his return to the White House.

According to the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), 61,465 illegal immigrants were apprehended at the southern border during the month of January, which is a 36 percent decline from the previous month.

The number includes 29,116 apprehended along the border, the lowest since May 2020, and 32,349 immigrants who tried to enter the U.S. through ports.

According to the White House, during the President Joe Biden administration, the average number of illegal immigrants encountered at the southern border in January 2024 was 141,710.

Trump is making good on one of his campaign promises to crackdown on illegal immigration including better border control and U.S. Customs Immigration Enforcement (ICE) rounded up undocumented immigrants for deportation throughout the U.S.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature passed a package of laws to help Trump carry out his illegal immigration crackdown operation including imposing the death penalty on illegal immigrants who commit capital crime such as first-degree murder and child rape.

The bill also includes increasing penalties for undocumented immigrants illegally entering the state which carries a mandatory nine-month jail sentence.

And the bill erases in-state tuition rates for about 6,5000 undocumented students brought to the country as children.

DeSantis also signed an executive order for ICE to train more state law enforcement officers to enforce immigration laws including interrogating and detaining suspected illegal immigrants to determine their status in the U.S.