There are now more agents along the 1,954 mile-long border than ever before… Border agents per sector. Staffing has more than doubled in most of the nine sectors along the border, but the growth has not been uniform. Nearly 40 percent of the border staff in 2012 was in Tucson or El Paso, two sectors covering about 500 miles of the border with declining shares of immigrant traffic. They were among the main locations of illegal border crossings during the Mexican migration wave that peaked around 2005.

…and apprehensions along the border have dropped sharply … Apprehensions per sector. Overall, apprehensions have fallen as the number of people caught trying to cross the border illegally has declined sharply in recent years, largely because there were fewer people trying to cross the border in the first place. The recession was a factor. But criminal control on the Mexican side of the border and increased border patrol staffing increased the risks and cost of the trip, making it harder to cross successfully in recent years.