Catch-and-release is over

Every parent learns it eventually: the rule taped to the fridge is not the real rule. The real rule is whatever happens the first time it gets broken. Kids don't study the sign. They study the follow-through.

For decades, the sign at the southern border said that crossing illegally was against the law. The follow-through told a different story.

In August 2023, Border Patrol released 101,650 of the people it caught at the southwest border into the country, 56.1% of everyone it apprehended that month, according to Homeland Security data cited by the Center for Immigration Studies. In April 2024, more than 68,000 were released. The smugglers didn't sell the law. They sold the release numbers.

Seventeen months of zero

In May 2025, the follow-through changed. By Homeland Security's count, Border Patrol has not released a single person it apprehended at the southwest border since then. September 2026 was the 17th straight month at zero, and Customs and Border Protection says fiscal 2026 was the first fiscal year in the agency's history without a single Border Patrol release, based on preliminary data. In August 2024, the number was 10,186. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott describes the new routine plainly: people who cross illegally are "apprehended, detained and removed."

The change shows up beyond Border Patrol, too. A January 2026 study by economists at Brookings and the American Enterprise Institute estimates that about 1.41 million people entered the country on parole or with a notice to appear in immigration court in 2024. In 2025, that number fell to between 67,000 and 70,000.

"Zero releases" does need a footnote. It is a Border Patrol number for people caught between the ports of entry, and it does not count every release by every agency. A July 2026 fact check by Oklahoma Watch, using TRAC immigration court data, found 6,524 people charged with illegal entry were released from May 2025 to May 2026, including some caught at ports of entry or inside the country.

Now hold that footnote next to the old numbers. In a little over a year, about 6,500 releases, counting ports of entry and arrests inside the country. In one month of 2023, more than 100,000 from Border Patrol alone. The practice that defined the Biden-era border is gone, even if a few thousand releases still happen elsewhere in the system.

The sign on the fridge hasn't changed in decades. What changed is what happens next, and everyone who was watching has noticed.