July Border Apprehensions Drop 24 Percent — Still Up 130 Percent Over 2018

The apprehension of migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry fell by more than 24 percent from June to July. Despite the decrease from the high point in May, apprehension numbers are still up from July 2018 by 130 percent.

U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 71,999 migrants in July. This is down from 94,908 in June — a decrease of 24.1 percent. Apprehensions by category of migrant are down across the board, according to the July Southwest Border Migration Report released Thursday.

Migrant family apprehensions fell in July by the highest percentage of the categories. Agents apprehended 57,355 Family Unit Aliens (FMUA) in June and 42,566 in July — a decrease of nearly 26 percent. Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) apprehensions fell by 21.38 percent (7,372 to 5,561) and Single Adult apprehensions fell by 20.9 percent (30,101 to 23,872), the report states.

Despite these decreases, year-to-date numbers for all of the reported categories are significantly higher than the same period in FY18, officials stated.

Between October 1, 2017, and July 31, 2018, agents apprehended 317,569 migrants who crossed the border illegally between ports of entry. During the same period in FY19, agents apprehended 760,370 migrants — an increase of 139.4 percent. The largest increase came in the apprehension of migrant families. This number jumped exponentially from 77,794 in FY18 to 432,838 this year — a 456.4 percent increase.

Unaccompanied minors and single adult apprehensions jumped by 67.5 percent and 30.16 percent respectively.

The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Sector continues to lead the other nine border patrol sectors in migrant family apprehensions with 45 percent of all apprehensions. Agents in the RGV Sector apprehended 191,768 of the 432,838 FMUA apprehensions in July YTD numbers — up 305 percent from the previous year. The El Paso Sector jumped by 1,510 percent in FY19 with 124,873 FMUA apprehensions and Yuma was third with 50,172 FMUAs — up 367 percent.

Guatemala and Honduras continue to be the biggest supplier of migrant families who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Agents reported the apprehension of 177,142 Guatemalan migrant families (up from 50,401 during all of FY18) and 171,256 Hondurans (up from 39,439 in all of FY18). Two months remain in FY19 which ends on September 30.

Mexican nationals represent the largest group of single adult illegal border crossings with 124,543. This number is down from the previous year’s total of 139,860 with two months to go in the current fiscal year.