PHOENIX: Fewer people were arrested and less cash and drugs were seized at checkpoints along the Arizona-Mexico border in 2015 than last year, a report said.
“We apprehended 70,074 people in Arizona in fiscal year 2015 and that’s a 25 percent decrease from 2014,” John Lawson with U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.
More people were turned away from entering the country in Arizona. About 9,300 people were determined to be inadmissible, up from the 8,880 sent away in 2014.
The report from customs said officials seized about $2.1 million in 2015 along Arizona’s border, a significant drop from the nearly $3.5 million taken in 2014.
About 928,000 pounds of drugs were seized in Arizona, down from 1.2 million in 2014.
Nationally, the report said 486,651 people were apprehended in fiscal year 2014 while 337,117 were caught in 2015 — a drop of about 30 percent. This year’s mark was about 80 percent lower than the record, which was set in 2000.
Of those stopped at the border, about 40,000 were unaccompanied children. In 2014, border agents apprehended nearly 70,000 children who were traveling without an adult.
Though the number of Mexican nationals dipped by 18 percent, a much larger decrease was seen in the number of other nationalities attempting to enter the nation. The report said 68 percent fewer people from other nations — primarily Central America — were caught at a border.
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