The U.S. Border Patrol made 125,090 apprehensions along the southwest border during January 2001, a 33 percent decrease when compared to January 2000. Voluntary returns conducted by Border Patrol agents decreased by 33 percent to 121,836. For the first four months of FY 2001, apprehensions and voluntary returns were down 22 and 23 percent respectively, when compared to the same period in FY 2000. 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. Southwest border apprehensions for September through December 2000 showed the expected seasonal pattern of decrease, while January apprehensions showed the expected seasonal rise. January 2001 apprehensions however, were 33 percent below the previous January. In FY 2000, Central American apprehensions on the southwest border reached 23,092, a decrease of 6,023 when compared to the previous year. For the first four months of FY 2001, southwest border Central American apprehensions reached 5,755 a decrease of 23 percent compared to the same period in FY 2000.