Voluntary returns conducted by Border Patrol agents, increased by 2 percent to 102,269. Normally, apprehensions reach a yearly low in December followed by a strong seasonal increase in January.
Seasonal highs tend to be reached in early spring.
Apprehensions fluctuate but remain relatively high through the summer months and then start their autumn decline in September, which continues through the Christmas and New Year holidays. Fiscal year 1999 southwest border apprehensions were up 1 percent compared to fiscal year 1998. However, the FY99 figure of 1,537,000 apprehensions is exceeded only by the FY86 figure of 1,615,844. In FY98, Central American apprehensions on the southwest border reached 20,823, an increase of 6,946 when compared to the previous year. During FY99, southwest border Central American apprehensions reached 29,115 an increase of 39.8 percent compared to the same period in FY98.