The number of migrants that Border Patrol agents caught illegally entering the U.S. from Mexico between official ports of entry dropped in June following months of record-high levels since President Trump took office a year and a half ago, according to a report published Sunday evening.
A little more than 34,000 people were arrested at the border by agents during the month of June, down about 6,000 arrests from 40,000 in May, according to information a government official gave the Associated Press. This figure does not include the number of people who arrived at ports of entry.
A senior CBP official would not confirm the validity of the numbers.
“As a matter of policy, CBP releases the apprehension and inadmissible numbers between the 6th and 8th of the following month to ensure accuracy and consistency,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs Andrew Meehan said in an email. “CBP does not comment on unofficial numbers.”
The drop would come three months after the start of Trump’s April-implemented zero tolerance immigration policy.
CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told reporters in McAllen, Texas, last week that he expected the June numbers, which will include other numbers in addition to those apprehended by Border Patrol between ports, to be down from May.
“The June numbers are looking like they’re going to be lower,” McAleenan said.
He pointed to the agency and Border Patrol’s increased focus on border enforcement as what prompted what he forecast would be a downturn in the number of apprehended adults, unaccompanied minors, and family units in the month of June.
However, last month, following the release of the May figures, Homeland Security Department press secretary Tyler Houlton said it would take “many months” before border officials would be able to get a hold of the spiking numbers.
“These numbers show that while the Trump administration is restoring the rule of law, it will take a sustained effort and continuous commitment of resources over many months to disrupt cartels, smugglers, and nefarious actors,” Houlton said in a statement. “We are taking action and will be referring and then prosecuting 100 percent of illegal border crossers, we are building the first new border wall in a decade, and we have deployed the National Guard to the border.”
McAleenan’s predication that apprehension levels would dip in June was made in the same conversation he admitted the Trump administration has effectively suspended its two-month-old zero tolerance policy.
The policy was announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in April as a way to tell illegal entrants no person would be exempt from prosecution just because he or she was part of a family unit.
“I’m suggesting since the executive order we have prosecuted adults that came across with children, but we are not doing that widely because of the guidance in the executive order to maintain a family unit,” McAleenan said.
Trump issued an executive order June 20 that directed DHS to keep family units together. Family separation happened when officials tried to prosecute adults, who then were taken away from their child.
