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More than 4,000 unaccompanied migrant children and teens have been apprehended in the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol since October, a 36 percent decrease from the same time last year, data showed.
Tucson’s sector covers 262 border miles between New Mexico and Yuma.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection released data comparing apprehensions from October 2014 to June 1 that showed a drop in unaccompanied minors.
Apprehensions of minors along the Southwestern border for that period were down 51 percent, to 22,869, federal data showed.
The Rio Grande Valley in Texas saw the biggest spike last year with more than 35,000 children and teens crossing the border illegally without parents. So far this year that sector is also seeing a drop in apprehension of minors of 60 percent.
Most of the unaccompanied minors are from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, consistent with last year’s trend.