The number of people arrested crossing the US border has plummeted to its lowest level in almost half a century, new statistics have revealed amid Donald Trump’s hard line on immigration.

A little over 300,000 people were arrested by the agency that patrols America’s border in the year to September 2017.

That is down from more than 400,000 arrests the year before, equaling a drop of 24 per cent.

Not since 1971 have so few arrests been made by US border patrol, according to official statistics released on Tuesday.

Much of the period covers the time after Mr Trump’s US election victory in November 2016, following his campaign pledge to build a wall along the Mexican border.