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The number of people apprehended by Border Patrol agents in Arizona last year was the lowest in 20 years.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced today that there were 125,942 apprehensions last year, which still amounts to an average of 350 people per day.
“Apprehensions dropped more than 61 percent in the past five years and more than 82 percent since the highest point in 2000,” according to a CBP spokesman.
There were only about 500 fewer apprehensions in 2012.
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Border Patrol counted 200 deaths around the border in 2013, while more than 800 people were rescued.
Meanwhile, CBP processed more than 23.1 million people through Arizona’s ports of entry in 2013, an turned back about 10,000 of them due to various “admissibility concerns.”
All of the Customs and Border Protection action in Arizona last year resulted in the seizure of 154 firearms, more than 23,000 rounds of ammunition, about 1.3 million pounds of drugs (including marijuana), and more than $6.4 million in unreported cash.
According to information released by the agency earlier this month, apprehensions nationwide actually increased about 16 percent over 2012, but that number is still much lower than the number of apprehensions in 2008.
The total number of apprehensions of Mexican citizens stayed about the same from 2012 to 2013, while there was an increase in apprehensions of people from other countries, “predominately individuals from Central America,” according to the agency.
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