Report: Fewer undocumented kids caught at border

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - The number of unaccompanied children crossing the border is decreasing, according to a new report.

The Department of Homeland Security says it picked up 522 kids coming across the border in Texas without their parents last week. That’s out of a total of 5,500 kids caught in all of July.

That’s about half the number that came across in May and June. DHS says it's sending some of the adults captured at the border back to their home countries in four days.

The Nogales facility that once had about 1,000 undocumented children closed several weeks ago because all of the children were taken to other locations.

Unaccompanied children Adults with children

January 3,706 2,286

February 4,846 3,282

March 7,176 5,754

April 7,702 6,511

May 10,579 12,774

June 10,628 16,330

July 5,508 7,410

Secretary Johnson noted that apprehensions in the first few days of August continue along the July trend.

Secretary Johnson stated: "We have surged resources and put in place an aggressive campaign to counter the rise of illegal migration into the Rio Grande Valley. We have dramatically reduced the removal time for many unaccompanied adults from about 33 to four days. We have built additional detention space for adults with children at Artesia, New Mexico and another facility that was transitioned last week in Karnes City, Texas, and we are about to open an additional facility for the same purpose. We have increased the number of flights to repatriate people back to Central America.”