Border encounters drop as deportation flights on jumbo jets begin

Deportations are already underway, as jumbo jets carrying illegal immigrants are being sent out of the country in the first few days of the Trump administration. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted to X, "Deportation flights have begun. President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences."

The numbers at the southern border have sharply dropped since Trump took office, per Fox News, citing multiple Department of Homeland Security sources. The outlet reported that the number of border encounters in the first few days of Trump's administration has been 35 percent lower than the number of encounters that occurred in the last three days of former President Joe Biden's term.

It was reported by ZeroHedge that two C-17s as well as two C-130s were being positioned to conduct deportation flights for detained illegal immigrants on Thursday. Upon taking office, Trump has cracked down on illegal immigration as promised during his campaign. He ended the operations of the CBP One app within hours of taking office. The app had allowed for immigrants coming up to the southern border to set appointments to claim asylum. Whether or not those claims were true, many were allowed into the US with a pending immigration court date.

Trump has also put a stop to the "catch-and-release" policy, which allowed for immigrants detained at the border to be released into the US with a court date, sometimes years down the line, to work out their immigration status.