U.S. Border Patrol in Detroit says they're making more arrests than ever before at the Windsor-Detroit border.

U.S. Border Patrol Detroit Sector Chief Patrol Agent, Douglas Harrison told WDIV-TV that in the fiscal year 2017, there were 1,070 arrests, compared to 1,930 arrests in fiscal year 2018. That's an 80% jump from the year before.

These arrests took place at locations between official Ports of Entry and included individuals from 88 different countries in 2018. The arrests are for people illegally present in the United States.

(Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

Director of Field Operations for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Detroit, Christopher Perry says this is the busiest commercial crossing along the northern border.

"Our primary responsibility is to keep dangerous things and dangerous people out of the country," he says.

The Detroit arrests account for nearly half of the arrests at the Canadian border, with the total number of arrests along the U.S.-Canadian border hitting 4,316, compared to 396,579 arrests along the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018. Of those 4,316 arrests along the northern border, 963 of them were, Present Without Admission from Canada. This means that those apprehensions were individuals that the United States Border Patrol can verify came illegally across the border from Canada opposed to being apprehended at a checkpoint, transportation hub, during a traffic stop, etc.

A boost in resources is getting the credit for the increased arrests.

"We have the officers in the booths, we have the K9, the dogs, the X-Ray technology," says Perry.

According to the United States Border Patrol, Detroit Sector is responsible for 1388 kilometres of international border with Canada, stretching from northern Lake Superior to just outside of Cleveland, Ohio.