Nationwide, the number of migrant intercepts at sea dropped from 2,512 in 2017 to 1,668 in 2018, indicating a shift in which more migrants were intercepted off the West Coast. The majority of migrants taken into custody there come from Central and South America, while migrants caught along the East Coast are more likely to come from Haiti or other islands in the Caribbean Sea.

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A Coast Guard spokesman, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Barry Lane, said the migrants intercepted at sea in 2018 came from numerous countries in the Western Hemisphere, including Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia and Guatemala. Others came from more distant nations including China, Sri Lanka, India and Jordan, he said.

For years, the Coast Guard intercepted more migrants off the coast of Florida than anywhere else. Those numbers plummeted in 2017, after the Obama administration normalized diplomatic relations with Cuba and ended the “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy that had allowed most Cubans who made the 90-mile trip by sea to pursue legal residency.

The service also intercepted 209,000 kilograms of cocaine at sea in 2018, falling just behind its record grab of 223,843 kilograms in 2017. The majority of those drugs are interdicted by a handful of Coast Guard cutters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, as they meet ships heading from Central and South America.

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Intercepts at sea represent a fraction of a much larger trend. Customs and Border Protection reported 415,517 total apprehensions at the southern border in fiscal 2017 and 521,090 in fiscal 2018. More than 60,000 migrants were arrested in each of the past three months attempting to enter the country illegally.

But the statistics will still serve as new fodder for advocates of the Coast Guard, whose service members are among the federal employees working without pay amid a partial government shutdown caused by a political dispute over President Trump’s proposed southern border wall. Service members are due a paycheck Tuesday and are unlikely to get their money. The shutdown was 24 days old — and the longest in U.S. history — as of Monday.

Although the service is considered part of the U.S. military, it has no funding because it is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Most other branches of service are part of the Defense Department, which has funding approved.

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The shutdown also has threatened the pensions of Coast Guard veterans. Adm. Charles W. Ray, the service’s No. 2 officer, said in an email to retirees Saturday that there is a “distinct possibility” that retiree pay and money for the Survivor Benefit Plan, an insurance policy for the surviving spouses of Coast Guard veterans, may be delayed if the shutdown continues into late January.

“Please be assured that we are continuing to work closely with the Department of Homeland Security, the Administration, and Congress to reduce the impacts of this funding lapse on our Coast Guard workforce — past and present — and I will keep you informed as additional information becomes available,” Ray wrote.

The shutdown has put other strains on the service as Trump seeks funding for the wall. The president has promised to fund new polar icebreaker ships for the Coast Guard, but money for them is no longer a certainty. A Senate appropriations bill passed last year included $750 million for the first ship, but the House version did not include the money. It is not clear whether the money will be included if a spending bill makes it to the White House.

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The Coast Guard commandant, Adm. Karl Schultz, has posted social media messages in recent days as he seeks to reassure the force.