Office of Immigration Statistics

POLICY DIRECTORATE

Fact Sheet

NOVEMBER 2006

Border Apprehensions: 2005

AMY WU

Statistics on apprehensions represent one of the few indicators available regarding illegal entry 

or presence in the United States. This Office of Immigration Statistics Fact Sheet provides information on recent trends in apprehensions and the gender, age, and geographic location of persons 

apprehended during 20051.

Data for 2005 were obtained from the Enforcement Case 

Tracking System of U.S. Customs and Border Protection 

(CBP) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Data for prior years were obtained from the Performance 

Analysis System (PAS) of DHS.

DEFINING APPREHENSIONS

Apprehension statistics measure the number of foreign 

nationals who are caught and placed in custody for being 

in the United States illegally. Persons apprehended are 

subject to removal from the United States for violating 

the Immigration and Nationality Act. The relationship 

between apprehensions to either the number of attempted 

illegal entries or the number of successful illegal entries 

is unclear.

The vast majority of apprehensions occur near U.S.borders 

shortly after an illegal entry. These apprehensions are 

made by the Border Patrol of CBP. A much smaller number of apprehensions involve other foreign nationals 

illegally present in the United States. They may have 

entered without inspection (EWI) or entered legally but 

lost their legal status,for example,by overstaying the terms 

of their entry permit or visa. Most apprehensions made 

beyond U.S. borders are handled by the Investigations 

Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 

of DHS.

Apprehensions data represent events, not individuals.The 

total number of apprehensions during a specific time 

period will be greater than the total number of unique 

individuals apprehended since some individuals will 

have been apprehended more than once.

TRENDS

There were 1.3 million apprehensions in 2005. During the 10 year period 1996-2005, the annual number 

of apprehensions reached a high of 1.8 million in 

2000 and a low of 1.0 million in 2003 (see Figure 1).

Apprehensions made by the Border Patrol along U.S. borders represented 89 to 94 percent of all apprehensions 

during 1996-2005.

DEMOGRAPHICS OF BORDER PATROL 

APPREHENSIONS 

Demographic information on the characteristics of persons apprehended is presented for those apprehensions 

by the Border Patrol along the 8,000 miles of American 

international borders.The southern border with Mexico 

is approximately 2,000 miles.The northern border with 

Canada is approximately 4,000 miles. The coastal borders consist of 2,000 miles surrounding Florida and 

Puerto Rico.

Table 1 displays the age and country of origin of persons

apprehended at the three borders during 2005.Almost all 

Figure 1. 

Border Apprehensions and Investigations 

Apprehensions: 1996 to 2005 

Thousands 

300 

0 

600 

900 

1,200 

1,500 

1,800 

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 

Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Enforcement 

Case Tracking System (ENFORCE), Fiscal Year 2005, and the 

Performance Analysis System (PAS), Fiscal Years 1996 to 2004. 

Border apprehensions 

Investigations apprehensions 

1 Refers to fiscal year October 2004 through September 2005.
2 DHS Office of Immigration Statistics

Table 1.

Apprehensions by Border: 2005

Characteristic

Border

Total Southern Northern Coastal

Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent

Gender

 Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,189,108 100.0 1,171,428 100.0 7,343 100.0 10,337 100.0

Male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 969,955 81.6 955,037 81.5 6,319 86.1 8,599 83.2

Female . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219,124 18.4 216,370 18.5 1,016 13.8 1,738 16.8

Unknown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 - 21 - 8 0.1 - -

Age 

 Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,189,108 100.0 1,171,428 100.0 7,343 100.0 10,337 100.0

Adult (18 over) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,074,462 90.4 1,057,665 90.3 6,992 95.2 9,805 94.9

Juvenile (17 and under) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114,569 9.6 113,701 9.7 347 4.7 521 5.0

Unknown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 - 62 - 4 0.1 11 0.1

Country of nationality

 Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,189,108 100.0 1,171,428 100.0 7,343 100.0 10,337 100.0

Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,023,930 86.1 1,016,434 86.8 4,080 55.6 3,416 33.0

Honduras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52,760 4.4 51,889 4.4 202 2.8 669 6.5

EL Salvador . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39,308 3.3 39,004 3.3 100 1.4 204 2.0

Brazil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31,072 2.6 30,843 2.6 134 1.8 95 0.9

Guatemala. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22,593 1.9 21,807 1.9 233 3.2 553 5.3

Nicaragua . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,922 0.3 3,826 0.3 13 0.2 83 0.8

Cuba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,262 0.3 129 - 20 0.3 3,113 30.1

China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,200 0.2 1,987 0.2 179 2.4 34 0.3

Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,020 0.1 33 - 983 13.4 4 -

Other. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,041 0.8 5,476 0.5 1,399 19.1 2,166 21.0

- Figure rounds to 0.0.

Note: Data reported as of April 13, 2006.

Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Enforcement Case Tracking System (ENFORCE), Fiscal Year 2005.

apprehensions occur at the southern border. In 2005, the southern 

border accounted for 98.5 percent of apprehensions.The majority 

(86.1 percent) of these apprehensions were Mexican nationals.

More than four-fifths (81.5 percent) of persons apprehended at the 

southern border were male. Ninety percent were ages 18 and over.

Eighty-seven percent were from Mexico. Other leading countries of 

origin included Honduras (4.4 percent), El Salvador (3.3 percent),

Brazil (2.6 percent), and Guatemala (1.9 percent).

Persons apprehended at the northern and coastal borders were similar to those at the southern border with respect to gender and age.

Mexico was the leading country of origin for apprehensions at the 

northern border (55.6 percent) and coastal borders (33.0 percent).

Cuba was the next leading country (30.1 percent) for coastal border apprehensions.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information about immigration and immigration statistics, visit the Department of Homeland Security web site at http://

www.dhs.gov/immigrationstatistics.