All-time high number of undocumented immigrants apprehended in 2021

Yuma Sector alone has a 3,000% increase in border activity - 13 On Your Side's Arlette Yousif reports

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Apprehensions along the southern border are still soaring through the roof, especially within the Yuma and El Centro sectors. From October first of this year to now, Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents have already apprehended over 14,000 undocumented immigrants.

For the Yuma Sector, going from 20 to 30 apprehensions a day in 2020 to now 900 to 1200 apprehensions a day is extreme.

"Our apprehensions are up over 3,000 percent as opposed to last year. For this year, for this fiscal year, we’ve surpassed 14,000 and that’s just from the first," says Yuma Sector Border Patrol Supervisor Vincent Dulesky.

Fiscal year 2021, which ended in September, shows that U.S. Border Patrol agents detained more than 1.7 million migrants nationwide, higher than its ever been. And the numbers hit close to home too. Over the weekend there were nearly 2,000 total apprehensions. Monday there were over 680 and Tuesday over 700. But the condition of asylum seekers seems to have changed.

"We’re not seeing the soiled clothes or the torn clothes. They seem to be in pretty good condition when they arrive. We’re seeing a lot of… if they do get their shoes dirty, they’ll just leave their shoes out there and get another one out of their luggage that they're bringing over. So it’s definitely a, it seems like a different social-economic backgrounds that are coming," explains Dulesky.

Currently, Brazil, Venezuela, and Cuba are the main three countries that asylum seekers are traveling from.

Dulesky says the help they're receiving from other sectors has had a large impact on Yuma holding facilities, as they are no longer over-capacity, even with the high number of apprehensions.