The amount of unaccompanied undocumented immigrant minors illegally entering the United States has fallen by over 50% from previous levels. The rate of apprehensions on the southern border has been reduced by 51% over the course of the current fiscal year so far in comparison with the same time period last year, US Customs and Border Protection has revealed.
Between October 1st last year and June 1st 2015 agents of US Customs and Border Protection caught 22,869 undocumented unaccompanied immigrant minors trying to cross into the United States in contrast with the 46,458 such minors apprehended in the same time frame in the 2014 fiscal year. This time around the great majority of the apprehensions took place in the Rio Grande Sector, which has nonetheless also recorded a drop of 60% in the rate of apprehensions.Very few of the sectors covered by US Customs and Border Protection experienced an increase in apprehensions, the exceptions being an 85% increase in the Yuma Sector – from 263 apprehensions to 487 – and a 134% increase in the Big Bend Sector, from 148 to 346.
The majority of the apprehended unaccompanied immigrant minors were from Guatemala, with 8,048 encounters, which was close to the total of Guatemalan immigrant minors apprehended in the whole of 2013. Mexican minors came in second with 7,487 apprehensions, and El Salvador minors were in third place with 4,458 encounters. Just 2, 533 apprehended minors came from Honduras.
