Border Apprehensions Fall to Record Low as Texas Waits on Washington’s Repayment

The U.S. Border Patrol made 98,708 apprehensions along the southwest border in the 2026 fiscal year, the lowest in the agency’s history, according to preliminary figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Texas, which spent billions of its own dollars guarding the border, is still waiting on the money Washington promised to pay it back.

The total was 60 percent below the single highest month of the previous administration, 249,740, the agency said, and Border Patrol finished the year with no releases at the border for the first time. Nationwide encounters, which include ports of entry, fell to 379,243.

Where the crossings were

Texas still saw the largest share. In the agency’s sector data for the fiscal year, the four Border Patrol sectors entirely inside Texas, Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, Del Rio and Big Bend, recorded 47,691 apprehensions, about 48 percent of the total. Rio Grande Valley was the busiest sector on the border, with 21,476. The El Paso sector, which includes far West Texas and New Mexico, added 17,265.

Who paid

The governor’s office says Texas spent more than $10 billion of its own money on border security over the previous four years, and the Legislature budgeted another $3.35 billion for border security across 13 state agencies for 2026 and 2027, according to the Legislative Budget Board.

In September, the governor announced that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had approved $7.5 billion to reimburse Texas through a fund Congress created in 2025 to repay states for border costs Washington did not cover. As of the comptroller’s September 21 notice, “the funds have not yet been transferred to the state.” The Texian Partisan found no public record of a transfer since.

Border security is Washington’s job. The crossings have fallen to a record low, and Washington has yet to repay Texas for the years Texas did that job itself.