Young Touts Progress at U.S. Southern Border

**Click here or above to watch Senator Young’s floor speech.**

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) spoke on the Senate floor about how tough border security policies put in place by President Trump and new resources provided by Congress to combat drug smuggling and human trafficking are working.

To watch Young’s full floor speech, click here.

Senator Young’s full remarks are below:

Mr. President, I cannot be the only member of this body to notice that several words and phrases are used a lot less on the Senate floor these days.

They include:

• Open borders.
• Illegal crossings.
• Catch and release.
• And migration surges.

These terms have dropped from our debates and are no longer in the news, because President Trump and Republicans in Congress helped largely close the border to illegal immigrants.

With support from this President and this Republican Congress, our law enforcement personnel ceased catch and release and stopped the record migration surges.

This is what the American people elected us to do: end the chaos at our southern border and block the flow of illegal immigrants into our communities.

We did these things so effectively, it has almost gone unnoticed.

Of course, there were some who denied there was a crisis in the first place.

The numbers from one administration to the next tell a different story:

From 2021 to 2024, over ten million illegal immigrants crossed the southern border. By design.

President Joe Biden paused deportations, laxed requirements for asylum seekers, ended construction of a border wall, and suspended Remain in Mexico.

The previous administration created an influx of illegal immigrants that endangered public safety and taxed resources in communities along and far from the border.

These policies also undermined Americans’ faith in legal immigration because they prioritized law breakers over those who wish to come to America legally and embrace its values.

As soon as he was inaugurated, President Trump increased the number of troops along the southern border, began deporting illegal immigrants, and reinstated Remain in Mexico.

And Republicans in Congress did our part too.

The Big Beautiful Bill, passed by this Congress and signed into law by President Trump a year ago, increased resources to secure the border and combat drug smuggling and human trafficking.

The bill contained funding for additional Border Patrol Agents.

As a result, the screening and vetting of illegal immigrants increased.

And increased funding for the Department of Justice enabled the hiring of additional immigration judges to clear out the back log of asylum cases.

Today, the results speak for themselves:

In November 2024, there were 106,333 reported border encounters.

In January 2025, the number dropped to 61,465.

It was down to 8,326 the next month.

A year later, in April 2026, apprehensions on the southern border were 94 percent lower than the monthly average during Biden’s presidency.

The seizure of drugs – cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and marijuana – has increased by weight 60% from since April 2024.

And we just marked an entire year of zero releases at the southern border.

A nation that does not control its borders, that cannot enforce its laws, is a nation that willingly surrenders its sovereignty. 

Abandoning our right to determine who participates in that process – indiscriminately allowing all comers to enter our country – endangers our citizens, burdens our taxpayers, and makes a mockery of the rule of law.

It is also dangerous to the immigrants themselves, some of whom perish on their way to our southern border.

Americans realized this, even if some of their leaders did not.

And this is why President Trump and Congressional Republicans acted to end the border crisis.

How can you tell? 

The relative silence in the mainstream media and on this floor from many of our Democratic colleagues tells you all you need to know.