Border Patrol arrests fell sharply in June to the lowest level since February, ending a streak of four straight monthly increases, the Associated Press reports. The drop may reflect seasonal trends or it could signal that President Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy to criminally prosecute every adult who enters the country illegally is having a deterrent effect. The agency made 34,057 arrests on the border with Mexico during June, down 16 percent from the 40,344 in May. The June tally is preliminary and subject to change.
Arrests still were more than double the 16,087 made in June 2017, but the sharp decline from spring could undercut the Trump administration’s narrative of a border in crisis. The administration announced in early May that it was prosecuting every illegal entry, including adults who came with their children. The separation of more than 2,000 children from their parents prompted an international outcry, and Trump reversed course on June 20, ordering that families should stay together. Rising temperatures could be a major influence on the arrest numbers, discouraging people from walking in the scorching and potentially lethal heat in much of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. Arrests fell from May to June in four of the previous five years, though last year was an exception. Still, the month-to-month percentage decline is notable. It fell in the low single digits in 2014 amid a major surge in illegal crossings and in 2015. Border arrests, an imperfect gauge of illegal crossings, surged during much of last year after falling dramatically in the early months of the Trump administration.