Border Patrol agents apprehend migrants outside of Sasabe, Arizona, in July 2024.The number of migrant apprehensions between ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border has decreased by more than half. New Tucson Sector chief Sean McGoffin says the drop locally has been substantial.
“Our numbers are down 81% as far as encounters across the Tucson Sector itself, but our prosecutions are up over 200% and those are consequences that are applied when necessary or available,” he said. “Removals are another aspect in which we do that. Our expedited removal program, things of that nature, have also helped to drive those numbers down.”
Since June’s proclamation there has been a more than 55% decrease in encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border and border officials have doubled the percentage of people put into expedited removal. Officials have done more than 700,000 migrant removals and returns in fiscal year 2024 — the highest it’s been in nearly 15 years.
More than 40% of people who crossed the southern border unauthorized in 2024 were families and children.
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