Arrests of illegal border-crossers dropped to record lows in San Diego last year.
At a community meeting Wednesday, San Diego’s Border Patrol chief said local agents arrested just around 28,400 border crossers last year, the Associated Press reports.
Spokesman Jerry Conlin said apprehensions in San Diego have been falling for years.
“In 2008 we had over 162,000 apprehensions. In 2009 we had over 118,000. In 2010 it was over 68,000 and in 2011 it was over 42,000. So you can see that trend has significantly decreased over these last five years," Conlin said, adding that better technology and more agents have made crossing the border illegally in San Diego more difficult.
That’s driven migrants east, to more dangerous stretches of desert.
Conlin said where the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector was once the busiest in the country, the Arizona and Texas sectors are now busier.
