After being one of the scenarios with the greatest irregular migratory flow, the encounters at the border in the San Diego sector, United States; with Tijuana, Mexico, fell 85% in fiscal year 2025 (October 1, 2024 to September 2025), compared to the previous fiscal year.
Although the number is drastic, the San Diego Border Patrol seeks to reduce detentions to zero.
Records indicate that fiscal year 2024 closed with more than 324,000 arrests, but by fiscal year 2025 the total was reduced to 49,000. The majority of arrests are of migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Türkiye and China.
So far in fiscal year 2026, it has made 2,000 arrests.
Before, agents detained between 500 to 1,000 migrants a day, but with the new strategies implemented at the border, it dropped to 30 people per day.
In San Diego, the first sign to stop irregular migration is a 6-meter-high border wall, followed by another similar 9-meter-high barrier. The Border Patrol agent in the sector, Gerardo Gutiérrez, explained that the double infrastructure helps them intervene in time at irregular crossings.
According to authorities, it takes a migrant between five to 10 minutes to jump the first wall, but their goal is complicated by the second building, and with this, the Border Patrol can intervene immediately.
«The walls provide us time to respond to illegal incursions and were initially built to stop vehicles, but now it is to deter irregular crossings by people. Jumping over the wall is dangerous and should not be done, there is only one way to enter the United States and that is through legal means,” Gutiérrez explained.
In addition, there are 2,000 agents who monitor the 90 kilometers of wall corresponding to this area day and night, especially now that traffickers operate with drones to enter groups of three to 15 migrants.
Over the next two to three years, the Border Patrol plans to hire 800 additional agents to reinforce the guard.
«We have detected that smugglers, cartels and human trafficking use drones to monitor us and in this way send groups to pass where we are not. But even if they use drones, we are aware, we are going to detect them and we are going to arrest them,” said Gutiérrez.
The agent assured that they are one step ahead of the traffickers, since they use the latest generation technology. The agency has infrared cameras and others with Artificial Intelligence that are capable of analyzing information, recognizing patterns and generating alerts. Added to this, there are sensors everywhere.
«Our border is sealed for irregular migration. People should not cross, the border is more protected, it is not worth trusting criminals,” he said.
Other of their strategies are “mirror” patrols in conjunction with the Mexican authorities. The operations are carried out simultaneously in the same areas of the border to deter irregular migration, and if a crime is committed, either of the two authorities can intervene from their side.
“People who cross migrants illegally lie, they tell migrants that the crossing will be easy, simple and that there will be no danger, but that is not the reality,” Gutiérrez warned.
In the officer’s opinion, those who gain the most from irregular entry into the United States are criminal groups, since the only thing that matters to them is money.
If a migrant enters the territory irregularly for the first time, they are exposed to a fine of $1,000 and a year in prison, but if it is the second time, the penalty reaches $5,000 with a punishment of up to two years in prison.
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