The U.S. Border Patrol made 97,744 apprehensions along the southwest border during September 2000, a 7 percent decrease when compared to September 1999. Voluntary returns conducted by Border Patrol agents decreased by 8 percent to 94,567. For all twelve months of fiscal year 2000, apprehensions and voluntary returns were up 7 percent respectively, when compared to the same figures for fiscal year 1999. 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. The total number of 1,643,679 apprehensions reported on the southwest border in fiscal year 2000 exceeded the previous record set in fiscal year 1986 by 27,835 apprehensions. In fiscal year 1999, Central American apprehensions on the southwest border reached 29,115, an increase of 8,292 when compared to the previous year. For the twelve months of fiscal year 2000, southwest border Central American apprehensions reached 23,092 a decrease of 21 percent compared to fiscal year totals for 1999.