The El Paso sector of the southwest border has become the busiest in the country as overall encounters at the border continue to freefall.
The El Paso sector, which extends from Hudspeth County, Texas, to the New Mexico-Arizona state line, became the busiest sector on the southwest border in February, with the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data showing it recorded 2,110 encounters last month.
Overall, CBP data shows 8,347 encounters at the southwest border in February, a stunning 94.1% drop from the same month last year, when 124,215 encounters were recorded.
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While the El Paso sector took the crown for the busiest, the just over 2,000 encounters for the area still represented a significant year-over-year drop from the numbers recorded during February of last year, when the sector had 23,919 encounters. The February numbers in El Paso also represented a drop from last month, with the sector recording 4,870 encounters in January 2025.
El Paso replaced the San Diego sector as the busiest on the southwest border in February, with San Diego recording just 1,650 encounters last month, a decline of 94.8% from the year before. The numbers for San Diego were also a dramatic drop from those recorded just last month, when the sector recorded 6,390 encounters.
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CBP has nine sectors on the southwest border from the coast of California extending east to Texas and the Gulf of America. Multiple sectors along the border recorded under 200 total encounters in February, including the El Centro sector in the Imperial Valley of California and the Big Bend sector of West Texas.
The El Centro sector recorded the fewest encounters in February, with CBP data showing just 102, a 91.6% reduction from the same time last year. The Big Ben sector wasn’t far behind, recording just 165 encounters in February, marking a 71% drop from the same month last year.