Federal law enforcement officers stationed at the Mexican and Canadian borders used their firearms just 15 times in fiscal year 2018, the lowest number in seven years and about a quarter of the rate seen in 2012.
The number of times U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have used their firearms has mostly dropped since 2012, when guns were used 55 times. In fiscal year 2017, 17 gun incidents were recorded.
The decline comes at the number of people apprehended while illegally crossing into the U.S. has also decreased since 2010.
At the end of former President George W. Bush’s second term, around 1 million people were arrested at the border each year. That number dropped to less than 400,000 in fiscal 2018.
In addition, half of all those arrested over the past four months have been families and children, not adults.
The use of less-lethal force, including tear gas and smoke, has remained steady since 2012.
[Opinion: Tear gas, border protection, and the inconsistency of Trump’s critics]
