Number of Border Arrests Drops in June with Tighter Enforcement, Summer Heat

The number of Border Patrol arrests dropped in June, ending a four-month streak of monthly increases in apprehensions.

The Associated Press cited an official who revealed the stats on condition of anonymity as the figures were not yet released. The agency made 34,057 arrests along the U.S.-Mexico border in June, down 16 percent from 40,344 arrests in May.

Customs and Border Protection did not immediately comment on the numbers.

The decrease in arrests could indicate the “zero-tolerance” immigration policy that refers for prosecution every adult who migrated to the country without proper documentation, regardless of whether they were accompanied by children. The Trump administration has halted referrals of undocumented immigrants accompanied by children to the Justice Department unless the child’s welfare is in question.

CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told reporters last week the number of apprehensions was lower in June, but said the numbers would not be publicly available until sometime in July.

“I believe the focus on border enforcement has had an impact on the crossings,” McAleenan said during a press conference in McAllen, Texas.

With the exception of 2017, the number of border arrests fell between May and June each year since 2013. This could indicate that this year’s drop in arrests could also be related to an annual trends or potentially fatal heat waves in the southwestern U.S.

Brad Allen

Brad M. Allen is a young journalist from Janesville, Wisconsin. He is currently studying Political Journalism and Economics at George Mason University, and he has recently completed his eighth semester of college at UW-Whitewater, where he studies Journalism. He is slated to graduate from UW-Whitewater in December 2018. Brad has worked with two newspaper publications in the southern Wisconsin area, those being The Royal Purple student-run newspaper at UW-Whitewater and the Janesville Gazette daily newspaper. Thus far in his time at the Royal Purple, Brad has been a prominent member of the editorial team in several roles ranging from the Business section editor to Managing Editor. A fair portion of his reporting experience there has involved investigating federal policy and national issues and interviewing officials and economists in southern Wisconsin to boil those issues down to a local level. At the Janesville Gazette, Brad designs newspaper pages containing stories on various state, national and international issues. His job there involves reading and dissecting content written by organizations such as the Associated Press and Tribune News Services to choose which stories will be most relevant to readers in Janesville.

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