The Biden administration took a sort of victory lap Monday after a major border surge didn’t materialize, saying that foreign governments have stepped up their own border security and migrants are becoming reluctant to shift from border-jumping to using “legal” avenues of entry.

The Border Patrol was running at less than 5,000 apprehensions daily from Friday to Sunday, compared to 10,000 daily from Monday through Thursday.

Homeland Security had been projecting a rise after the end of the Title 42 pandemic emergency expulsion authority on Thursday, so the drop was striking.

“I think what we’ve seen is a combination of the consequences we have imposed on unlawful entry and the work being done by our foreign partners to enforce their borders and these flows, as well as the lawful pathways we’ve made available,” said Blas Nunez-Nieto, an assistant secretary at Homeland Security.

He said the situation is still early, and authorities are expecting smugglers to make a renewed effort to try to entice people to make the journey, but the lower numbers have given Homeland Security some breathing space.

The number of people in custody at the border, which reached 27,000 last week, is down significantly, Mr. Nunez-Nieto said.

He said the U.S. has surged asylum officers to the border to do initial interviews to clear people for release into the country, while those that don’t clear the first asylum test are being put into speedy deportation proceedings.

Some 2,400 people were pushed back across the border into Mexico from Friday to Sunday, he said.

He did not say how many people have been caught and released from the surge.

Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said agents caught 14,752 people jumping the border from Friday through Sunday. They also detected but failed to nab 4,315 others.

President Biden celebrated the numbers on Sunday, chiding reporters by saying things were going “much better than you all expected.”

He also said he has no plans to visit the border, saying it would “just be disruptive.”

The National Border Patrol Council, the labor union for agents, cautioned the administration not to celebrate yet.

The NBPC said more than 100,000 migrants are waiting on the Mexican side.

“They are being metered by the cartels and MX govt, but make no mistake they’re coming,” the NBPC said on Twitter. “Cartels are still running the border. That hasn’t changed. They control the flow of illegal aliens coming in. Period.”

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.