At the end of the year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection released its year in review, called the CBP Border Security Report.
And according to the agency, illegal immigration is continuing to decline from its peak in 2000, with apprehensions totaling 486,651 for FY 2014, compared to FY 2013's 420,789. At the turn of the millennium, the agency apprehended 1.6 million undocumented immigrants, according to the Pew Research Center.
"The uptick is largely due to the increase in unaccompanied children and family units who turned themselves in to Border Patrol agents in South Texas this summer," the report notes.
Agents apprehended 68,631 children and 68,684 family units compared to 38,833 children and 15,056 family units in FY 2013 (76 percent increase in unaccompanied children and 356 percent increase in family units).
"DHS responded aggressively to this spike, and by September the number of unaccompanied children and family units crossing into South Texas were at their lowest levels in almost two years," the report states.
They did such a good job that they're building a new holding facility (prison) in Dilley, Texas in addition to the holding facility (prison) in Karnes County.
And then there's the drugs. In Texas, the agency seized more than 1 million pounds of narcotics. To the south of San Antonio, in the Rio Grande Valley sector, authorities seized more than 650,000 pounds of marijuana and 1,627 pounds of cocaine. Across the country, CBP seized 3.8 million pounds of various drugs.
For more information, here's a copy of the report:
Final Draft Cbp Fy14 Report_20141218