Bridge: Ocean to Ocean Highway YUMA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
COVID-19 Coverage

CBP statistics confirm significant drop in undocumented immigrant encounters

SECTOR STATS 11523.png
Yuma Sector Border Patrol
/

Statistics from Customs and Border Protection show a huge decrease in the number of undocumented immigrants illegally crossing into Yuma County.

CBP records show a drop of around 65% in apprehensions, and new numbers from Yuma Sector Border Patrol back them up.

Acting Yuma Sector Border Patrol Chief Patricia McGurk-Daniel reports agents arrested more than 2,200 immigrants during the week of January 15th.

That’s down slightly from the previous week, but a vast decline from December, when agents were seeing more than 7,600 apprehensions a week.

However, Yuma agents did pick up more than 130 unaccompanied minors.

That’s an uptick from the week before, when they encountered around 80.

The sector didn’t see any drug activity this week, but agents did bust one human smuggling attempt.

Yuma sector agents made one rescue last week. They also responded to ten 911 calls.

CBP attributes the drop in overall illegal crossings to the change in Title 42 that prevents immigrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, and Nicaragua from seeking asylum.

The agency has seen a 97% drop in encounters with people migrating from those countries across the southern border since President Joe Biden announced the change in policy on January 5th.

Lisa Sturgis’ return to KAWC brings her journalistic career full circle. Uncle Bob Hardy gave Lisa her first exposures to reporting back in the 1980s. She went on to spend more than three decades in TV news before making the decision to come home to NPR.