Jeh Johnson, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, declared on Friday that there has been a considerable fall in the number of undocumented immigrants apprehended trying to cross the border into the United States since last year. This indicates that the investment made in border security has been successful. The secretary stopped short of declaring the issue resolved, however, and took pains to highlight the budget request for the fiscal year 2016 for Customs and Border Security, which includes funding for surveillance technology and extra manpower. Johnson claims that there have been just 150,000 undocumented immigrants apprehended on the south-western border at the halfway point of the 2015 fiscal year, which is a fall of 28% from the same period last year.
This number is a reflection of what is happening on the rest of the US border, statistics released by the agency on Friday reveal. The statistics reveal a drop 32% in the first half of the current fiscal year compared to 2014, putting the figure at its lowest in over two decades.
“The border is becoming more secure than it has been and the numbers speak for themselves,” says Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform executive director Todd Landfried, who feels that enforcement is just one aspect of the solution to the country’s immigration issues. “But the important thing to know is border security is not going to solve the immigration problem. There needs to be comprehensive reform,” he explained.