Border arrests fell sharply in February
WASHINGTON — Arrests of people crossing the border illegally dropped roughly 44 percent during President Donald Trump’s first month in office, according to Homeland Security data.
The Border Patrol reported that about 23,500 people were arrested trying to cross the border illegally in February, compared with about 42,500 arrests in January.
The February figures, which also include significant drops in the arrests of families and children trying to cross the border alone, are the lowest monthly tallies since at least the start of the 2012 budget year.
It is not clear exactly what prompted the steep declines. The number of people caught crossing the border illegally in the winter typically is lower than during warmer summer months, though Trump has also made clear he intends to take a hard line on illegal immigration. The president has pledged to build a massive wall along the Mexican border and hire at least 5,000 new Border Patrol agents, though that hiring process is likely to take at least several years and may face some logistical hurdles.
Homeland Security John Kelly credited Trump’s executive orders on immigration calling for the wall, hiring thousands of immigration agents and cracking down on immigrants living in the country illegally for the steep declines.
Kelly, in a meeting with reporters earlier this week in Dallas, said smugglers also have increased prices to get immigrants from Central America — including Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — across the border since Trump took office. He said the prices have gone from about $3,500 to about $8,000. Though he didn’t disclose the latest border-arrest figures, Kelly suggested that many would-be border crossers couldn’t afford the higher smuggling fees.
Maureen Meyer, a senior associate for Mexico at the human rights advocacy agency Washington Office on Latin America, said it’s too early into Trump’s term to fully understand what caused the decline in arrests.