DHS Reports 11 Straight Months of Zero Migrant Releases at Southern Border

Border Patrol's Lordsburg Station, tucked at 26 Pipeline Road in one of the country's most remote enforcement corridors, sits at the operational center of a metric DHS celebrated on April 9: eleven consecutive months without a single migrant released into U.S. communities from the southern border.

The distinction matters for Hidalgo County, and it requires plain translation. "Zero releases" does not mean zero crossings. It means that every migrant encountered by Border Patrol during those 11 months was detained, removed, or expelled rather than processed and allowed to await immigration proceedings in the community. In March alone, Border Patrol recorded 8,268 southwest border arrests, a daily average of 267. That number is striking not for its size but for the comparison DHS used to frame it: 267 arrests per day is fewer than Border Patrol processed in a single hour during December 2023, when the Biden administration's peak reached 336 encounters per hour.

Hidalgo County, anchored by Lordsburg and stretching through the Bootheel communities of Animas, Rodeo, and Cotton City, falls entirely within the El Paso Border Patrol Sector, the federal operational unit responsible for all of New Mexico and parts of west Texas. The Lordsburg Station is that sector's forward presence in the Bootheel, and its agents are the ones executing the enforcement posture behind the national tally DHS announced this week.

The "zero releases" streak runs alongside a separate federal investment that has already reshaped planning conversations in Hidalgo County. In January 2025, DHS awarded a $1.6 billion contract to Fisher Sand and Gravel Co. to construct 49 miles of border wall across the Bootheel. CBP followed that contract with a December 18, 2025, waiver issued by the DHS Secretary, suspending certain laws and regulations to expedite barrier and road construction in Hidalgo County. In plain terms, federal bulldozers and contractors are either already operating or expected imminently on county-adjacent land.

Rep. Gabe Vasquez, whose NM-02 district includes Hidalgo County, called the project "the absolute definition of waste" when the contract was announced, arguing it would not improve safety. That political tension between Washington's enforcement metrics and local skepticism has not resolved; it has only been layered over by continued federal announcements.

The share hook in this week's DHS release is not the streak itself but what travels alongside it. Even as releases dropped to zero, CBP seized over 65,000 pounds of drugs nationwide in March, including 613 pounds of fentanyl, a 27 percent increase over March 2024. Border apprehensions may be near historic lows; contraband interdiction is simultaneously at historic highs. For a county where the Lordsburg Station and the Columbus Port of Entry are among the few major institutions, that combination of trends means federal activity is not winding down. It is changing shape.

Hidalgo County officials and service providers should watch for three near-term signals: any updated CBP contractor awards or timelines tied to the 49-mile Bootheel wall project, follow-up briefings from the El Paso Sector on how enforcement posture is shifting at the Lordsburg Station specifically, and county-level notices about coordination, permitting, or emergency services planning connected to new construction activity. The national "zero releases" number will mean something concrete here when those documents arrive.