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The Trump administration has seen a great deal of success on the border this year, with over 2 million illegal aliens either deported or self-deported. The administration has also seen massive success when it comes to keeping illegal narcotics out of the country.
According to a report from Customs and Border Protection, agents saw a massive 62 percent increase in narcotics seized at South Texas ports of entry in fiscal year 2025—in total, nearly 72,000 pounds of narcotics worth roughly $674 million.
Now local officials, including Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland, are praising that success. “During the Biden administration, Border Patrol agents were pulled in to process thousands of people daily,” he said, “and therefore, it was easier to smuggle between the ports of entry.”
He went on to explain that now that illegal aliens are being turned away at the border—rather than processed and released into the United States—Border Patrol agents can once again patrol and secure the border. This, in turn, is forcing smugglers to try to move their product through the ports of entry instead of around them.
Cleveland says that’s exactly what they’re doing. “Cartels are going back to those traditional ways at the ports of entry,” he said. “Smuggling in semi-loads or comingled loads with legitimate cargo like fruits and vegetables or car parts.”
Those drugs are, of course, much easier for authorities to detect and seize—and thus, the 62 percent increase over fiscal year 2024.