By Alicia A. Caldwell,
Alejandro Lazo and
Juan Montes
Updated Dec. 10, 2019 10:42 am ET
Arrests of people crossing the Southwestern border have plummeted 75% since May, marking one of the most dramatic drops in recent history and a sign that policy changes by the Trump administration and Mexico are reducing migration to the U.S.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Monday that 33,510 people were arrested after illegally crossing the border in November, marking the sixth straight monthly decline since May, when 132,000 such apprehensions marked a 13-year high.
The majority of those apprehended last year were families and unaccompanied children from Central America, nearly all of whom surrendered to border officials seeking asylum in the U.S. An unexpected surge of such migrants in the spring of this year created a crisis as the federal government proved unable to process them efficiently in safe and healthy conditions.
Of those arrested in November, 9,000 were traveling as families, according to CBP.
Border arrests typically decline this time of year and rise again in the spring when temperatures warm. Even so, the May-November decline is the biggest in absolute numbers and second biggest by percentage of any six-month period this century. The last few months of the Obama administration and the first few of the Trump administration saw a 76% drop,
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