Trump Warns Democrats Would 'Abolish Your Borders.' His Whole Border Year Was 60% Below Biden's Worst Month

President Trump used his final Sunday on the trail before the midterms to put the border back at the center of the race. Democrats, he told a rally at the Five Flags Event Center in Dubuque, Iowa, "are promising to abolish your borders," according to Fox News' live broadcast of the speech.

The numbers on his own watch point the other way. Border Patrol recorded 98,708 southwest border apprehensions in fiscal 2026, the lowest year in the agency's history and 60% below the Biden administration's single worst month of 249,740, the Department of Homeland Security said Oct. 16.

"In state after state, the Democrat Party has nominated the most extreme and dangerous radicals in American history," Trump said. "They openly are promising to abolish your borders and let millions of third world migrants ransack, rape and plunder your communities. They want to steal your wealth and give it to fraudsters, thieves and stupid people like that." The crowd answered with a long chant of "USA! USA!"

What the border numbers show

Monthly Border Patrol apprehensions at the southwest border stayed between 6,076 and 10,011 in every month of fiscal 2026 posted so far, October 2025 through August 2026, according to CBP's encounter data. September has not yet been posted.

DHS said September was the 17th straight month with zero Border Patrol releases. Nationwide encounters fell to 379,243, the lowest in agency history, compared with 2.7 million a year under Biden, the department said.

CBP has also finished 250 miles of new southwest border barrier since Jan. 20, 2025, according to DHS. Total fiscal 2026 apprehensions at the southwest border, 98,708, came in 60% below what Border Patrol logged in the Biden administration's single worst month.