CBP sees lowest October border encounters on record
(NEW YORK) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection had the lowest number of border encounters in any October, according to statistics obtained by ABC News.
The numbers also represent the lowest start to a fiscal year ever recorded. CPB says.
In October, there were 30,561 total encounters nationwide — the lowest start to a fiscal year ever recorded by CBP. The previous record low was 43,010 in October of FY2012, officials said.
The numbers are also almost 80% lower than in October 2024, according to CBP statistics.
“History made: the lowest border crossings in October history and the sixth straight month of ZERO releases. This is most secure border ever,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a statement to ABC News, who also thanked the men and women of CBP.
Since Jan. 21 through the end of October, there have been 106,134 total enforcement encounters along the southwest border. The daily average encounters along the border is 258 per day — 95% lower than the previous administration’s encounter numbers, CPB said.
Customs and Border Protection has focused now on interior enforcement due, it says, to the lack of migrants encountered at the border. They are currently deployed to cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles.
“Our mission is simple: secure the border and safeguard this nation,” said CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott. “And that’s exactly what we are doing. No excuses. No politics. Just results delivered by the most dedicated law-enforcement professionals in the country. We’re not easing up — we’re pushing even harder.”
(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Friday defended President Donald Trump continuing use of social media to troll Democrats during the government shutdown, threatening targeted cuts and posting two deepfake videos featuring Project 2025’s co-author as the “Grim Reaper” and another mocking House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
In one post late Thursday, the president posted an AI-generated video depicting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought as the “Grim Reaper” while the administration threatens mass layoffs of federal workers and cuts to what Trump calls “Democratic Agencies.”
Trump met earlier Thursday with Vought, who co-authored and heralded Project 2025 the conservative policy playbook that has advocated for firing federal workers and the elimination of federal agencies.
“Russ Vought is the Reaper. He wields the pen, the funds, and the brain. Here comes the Reaper,” a voice sings in the video as Vought is depicted walking through the Capitol dressed as the character depicting impending doom.
Hours after the post, Vought posted on X that he was going to withhold federal funding for transit infrastructure projects in Chicago, a Democratic run city that has been the source of complaints from Trump.
Vought earlier in the week withheld funding for transit infrastructure projects for New York and New Jersey, also Democratic-run states.
In another post, Trump highlighted another AI-generated video of himself trolling House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries with a “TRUMP 2028” hat while they appeared to negotiate in the White House on Monday.
It was on Monday that Trump also posted an AI-generated video that depicted Jeffries with a fake mustache and wearing a sombrero in a Mexican stereotype.
Jeffries, who called Monday’s video “racist” and “bigoted,” was asked about the latest deep fake on Friday morning in an interview on MSNBC.
“It’s further confirmation that Republicans are the ones who were clearly determined to shut the government down because everything that President Trump has done subsequent to Monday has been unhinged and unserious. In fact, Donald Trump is in the presidential witness protection program,” the minority leader said.
“No one can find him when it comes to the government shutdown issue because he knows he’s responsible for having caused it. And the behavior, the erratic behavior that we’ve seen, is further confirmation of that unfortunate fact,” he added.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed Jeffries’ comments during a briefing Friday, calling them “ridiculous fodder.”
ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked, “The president has described this as an unprecedented opportunity to lay off additional workers. He’s posted a video likening it to the Grim Reaper. Which is it? Is this an opportunity to fire more workers or an ‘unfortunate consequence'” (as Leavitt has called it).
“He likes to have a little fun and both can be true at the same time,” Leavitt responded. “We don’t like laying people off. Nobody takes joy and if you think that, that’s very sad you view the White House and our staff as wanting to put people out of work. Nobody wants to do that but sometimes in government, you have to make the tough decisions.
Leavitt, however, dodged questions if the federal layoffs could happen after the shutdown ends.
Vice President JD Vance has defended Trump’s memes, contending on Wednesday that they were simply jokes to make fun of Democrats. He said he didn’t understand how Jeffries could consider the video Trump posted on Monday as racist.
Republicans on the Hill have argued that the federal workers are suffering the most during the government shutdown and have pushed Democrats to reopen the government to protect their jobs.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has echoed that message and claimed that Vought does not want to get anyone fired if he can avoid it.
However, he also defended the president’s memes when asked about them on Friday.
“Are they taking great pleasure or not? No. Is he trolling the Democrats? Yes. Because that is what President Trump does and people are having fun with this. But at the end of the day, the decisions are tough,” Johnson said.
“The effects are really serious on real people, real Americans. We support federal employees who do a great job in all of these different areas, but what they’re trying to have fun with, trying to make light of, was to point out the absurdity that is the Democrats position,” he said.
“And they are using the memes and the tools of social media to do that. Some people find that entertaining, but the decisions are hard ones and they are not taking any pleasure in that,” Johnson added.
Legal experts argued the Constitution and federal law allow only Congress to declare cuts to federal agencies or remove them entirely.
The White House has not provided more details on the legality of Trump’s threats, nor has it responded to questions as to how firing people who are not getting paid would cut down on waste.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
A woman wades through flood waters at a flood-hit area on the outskirts of Multan, Pakistan on Sept. 2, 2025. (Photo by Str/Xinhua via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The State Department has approved funding to address the fallout from deadly flooding in Pakistan, marking the first assistance of its kind to be authorized under the second Trump administration.
“The United States stands with the people of Pakistan, whose lives have been uprooted by widespread, catastrophic flooding. On September 5, the U.S. Department of State approved a monetary response to deliver food, shelter, and other forms of lifesaving disaster relief to impacted communities,” a press release first seen by ABC News said.
“We are poised to coordinate with the Government of Pakistan and trusted relief organizations on the ground to deliver aid to the most affected areas,” a State Department spokesperson said.
The State Department has not revealed how much money it has devoted to flood recovery efforts.
The U.S. military’s Central Command also delivered an initial shipment of “urgent, life-saving assistance to Pakistan” in the immediate aftermath of the floods, according to a previously issued release.
The Trump administration has previously come under fire for making dramatic cuts to foreign assistance, including shuttering USAID—the agency that would normally be charged with coordinating the U.S. response to a natural disaster in a foreign country.
Jeremy Lewin, a senior official performing the duties of Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs, and Religious Freedom at the department, touted the assistance for Pakistan as a success story for the Trump administration’s approach.
“Our rapid support for the United States’ close ally Pakistan offers yet another example of the efficiency and effectiveness of the State Department’s new integrated America First foreign assistance capabilities,” Lewin told ABC News.
“Within 72 hours, the Department was able to deploy U.S. government disaster response personnel, program new assistance to assist more than 300,000 affected people, and coordinate military deliveries of critical aid supplies,” he added.
Pakistan has experienced a series of deadly floods through the summer monsoon season, but a fresh deluge of heavy rain in early September intensified the humanitarian crisis.
According to Pakistan officials, more than 1.3 million have been displaced by the devastating floods and hundreds have been killed.
“As Americans, we understand this devastation and will be contributing lifesaving disaster relief that will deliver food and shelter to impacted communities across Pakistan,” said Bethany Poulos Morrison, the State Department’s senior official for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.
