Border Patrol arrested 9,449 family members in June; 9,485 in May; and 9,652 in April. | Mario Tama/Getty Images Family border arrest levels remain unchanged despite ‘zero tolerance’

The number of families arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border remained steady in July, even after the Trump administration spent months separating parents and children under its controversial “zero tolerance” enforcement strategy.

Roughly 9,300 family members were arrested at the southwest border in July, according to preliminary figures obtained by POLITICO. The level of family arrests remained virtually unchanged in recent months. Border Patrol arrested 9,449 family members in June; 9,485 in May; and 9,652 in April.


The figures offer no clear indication that the Trump administration’s decision to prosecute migrant parents acted as a deterrent to illegal immigration, although experts caution against drawing broad conclusions from monthly border arrest data.

“It takes a while for us to really know the impact of changes and policies at the border,” said Theresa Cardinal Brown, director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Families fleeing violence or poverty in their home countries may not be inclined to change their plans, she said. They also may not know about the latest developments in U.S. border enforcement.

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“A lot of them are informed, frankly, by what the smugglers tell them,” she said.

Overall, Border Patrol arrested approximately 31,000 people at the southwest border in July, which tracks closely with the average for July over the past decade.

Still, the figure is well above the low levels of arrests during President Donald Trump’s first year in office, a trend that has infuriated the president in recent months.

The number of unaccompanied children caught at the border declined in July compared with June. Border Patrol picked up roughly 4,000 children in July — a 22 percent decrease from the previous month, according to the preliminary statistics.

Trump — facing broad public backlash against the separations — signed an executive order in late June that effectively ended zero-tolerance for families. Days later, a federal judge ordered the administration to reunite parents and children split apart under the policy.