“His administration inherited the worst border in U.S. history and turned it into the strongest and most secure border ever.” — Donald Trump. Our verdict: False.

What we found

The evidence

• Contradicts the claim

  CBP announced that Border Patrol staffing reached 21,471 agents in June 2026, the highest in the agency's 102-year history and above any level during the Trump administration. [1]

• Background

  CBP's Border Patrol statistics record 526,901 enforcement encounters in FY2017 and 646,822 in FY2020, giving figures for two years only rather than a full historical series. [2]

• Background

  CBP's enforcement statistics page reports the same yearly totals, 526,901 in FY2017 and 646,822 in FY2020, and describes encounters as the main measure of illegal crossings. [3]

• Supports the claim

  CBP publishes nationwide encounter statistics covering apprehensions and inadmissibles, the figures used to gauge levels of illegal border crossing. [4]

• Supports the claim

  A Congressional Research Service report says the Trump administration began a second phase of border barrier construction under Executive Order 13767, with $5.84 billion appropriated for planning and building through FY2021. It gives funding, not miles built or a comparison with earlier administrations. [5]

• Supports the claim

  An immigrantjustice.org budget analysis says Congress appropriated over $743 million for CBP border security technology acquisition and development from FY2017 to FY2020. It shows money set aside, not what technology was in place compared with other administrations. [6]

What we could not confirm

• Whether any earlier administration had the worst border in history, because we found no full historical series of border encounters covering administrations before 2017.
• How many miles of border barrier were built under each administration, because the sources we found give funding figures rather than miles completed.
• How much border technology was in place under each administration, because the sources describe appropriations rather than equipment on the ground.
• How releases of migrants, drug seizures and got-away rates compare across administrations, because no comparative figures were available.
• The exact Border Patrol staffing level when the Trump administration ended in January 2021, which was not given in the records we found.

How we checked

We looked at official CBP statistics and staffing announcements, a Congressional Research Service report on border barrier funding, and a budget analysis of border surveillance spending. We checked whether any of them compared border conditions across administrations, and found that most gave figures for single years or funding amounts only. We reviewed 6 relevant sources.