U.S. Border Patrol USBP

Congress created the Border Patrol in a Labor Department appropriations act of May 28, 1924, the same year it passed sweeping immigration quotas, to stop illegal crossings and smuggling between official entry points. It moved to the Justice Department's Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1940 and, after the INS was abolished, became part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the Department of Homeland Security in 2003. It is led by a Chief.

Roughly twenty thousand agents work in sectors along the southwest and northern borders and the coasts, using vehicles, horses, boats, aircraft, sensors, cameras, and barriers to detect and apprehend people crossing between ports of entry. Agents can stop and search vehicles at highway checkpoints near the border and process people they apprehend for removal, prosecution, or, for those seeking asylum, referral to immigration officials and courts. Inspections at official crossings are handled separately by CBP's Office of Field Operations.

Apprehensions at the southwest border reached record levels in 2022 and 2023, with more than two million a year, before falling sharply in 2024 and dropping in 2025 to their lowest levels in decades after the new administration ended most asylum access at the border and expanded enforcement. In 2025 Border Patrol agents were also deployed to support immigration operations in cities far from the border, such as Los Angeles and Chicago. Supporters said strong enforcement restored control of the border, while critics and civil liberties groups objected to interior deployments and aggressive tactics.