The U.S.-Mexico border: notice the lack of arrests in the picture

The Wall Street Journal’s Cam Simpson reports that arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border were down 23 percent in the past year, according to the Dept. of Homeland Security. This continues a pretty amazing law enforcement trend: there were 1.7 million border arrests in 2000, but  just 735,000 arrests last year. Meanwhile, the number of Customs and Border Protection border agents has zoomed from 11,000 in 2004 to 20,000 this year.

It’s hard to conclude, though, that the border agents are responsible for fewer arrests. A recession that makes America less appealing to illegally cross into could be the main reason. Indeed, the recession makes it hard to evaluate whether the  Bush administration’s hyper-escalation of border security has made a difference in border crime and illegal entries.

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