In his Fiscal Year 2015 Six Month Border Security Update, DHS Secretary Johnson claimed that the Department “deployed historic levels of front-line personnel, technology, and infrastructure to the border to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants and illicit contraband while, at the same time, fostering legal trade and travel.”
According to Johnson, during the first six months of Fiscal Year 2015, the number of total apprehensions along the southwest border, which is a strong indicator of total attempts to cross the border illegally, was 28 percent lower than total apprehensions during the same period in Fiscal Year 2014. Considering that 2014 was a record year for illegal entries, the number is not surprising.
Johnson claimed in a statement he made on April 24, that border apprehensions in the first six months of Fiscal Year 2015 “are a fraction of where they were fifteen years ago, when, in Fiscal Year 2000, a total of 1.6 million people were apprehended attempting to cross the southern border.” Fifteen years ago, government officials were mostly interested catching entrants. Now, the Border Patrol agents are discouraged from doing so.
Total apprehensions along the southwest border – comprised of apprehensions of unaccompanied children, family units, and single adults – for Fiscal Year 2015 are at their lowest point in the past four fiscal years. Through March 31, 2015, apprehensions this Fiscal Year are 151,805, down nearly 60,000 (or 28 percent) compared to the same period in Fiscal Year 2014, according to Johnson.
Compared to the same time periods in Fiscal Years 2012 and 2013, apprehensions are down 15,669 and 37,259, respectively.
According to the Washington Times, “New figures provided to Congress show that deportation rates have taken a steep dive, another 25%, so far this year. For the first six months of FY 2015, which began Oct. 1, 2014, only 117,181 illegal aliens were removed. Compared to the 157,365 illegal immigrants removed during the same period last year, the statistics suggest that President Obama’s executive actions on immigration have significantly reduced total deportations.”