A newer version of this project is available. See below for other available versions.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Statistics and Summaries

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Jacob Kaplan, University of Pennsylvania

Version:  View help for Version V2

Name File Type Size Last Modified
apprehensions_seizures_stats_2011_2017.zip application/zip 61.9 KB 04/28/2019 02:27:PM
border_patrol_staffing_1992_2018.zip application/zip 61.1 KB 04/28/2019 02:27:PM
family_child_total_monthly_2000_2018.zip application/zip 158.7 KB 04/28/2019 02:27:PM
nationwide_total_apprehensions_1925_2018.zip application/zip 52.5 KB 04/28/2019 02:27:PM
other_than_mexico_apprehensions_2000_2018.zip application/zip 69.6 KB 04/28/2019 02:27:PM
raw_files.zip application/zip 5.2 MB 04/28/2019 02:33:PM
sector_profile_2011_2017.zip application/zip 75.8 KB 04/28/2019 02:27:PM
southwest_border_apprehensions_1960_2018.zip application/zip 61.6 KB 04/28/2019 02:28:PM
southwest_border_deaths_1998_2018.zip application/zip 54.1 KB 04/28/2019 02:27:PM

Project Citation: 

Kaplan, Jacob. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Statistics and Summaries. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-04-30. https://doi.org/10.3886/E109522V2

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary
Version 2 release notes:
  • Fixes link to GitHub page. No data was changed.

This is a collection of data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), primarily about apprehensions of illegal immigrants. All the data here was originally scraped from the PDFs available from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Stats and Summaries page on their website (https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/media-resources/stats). I am in no way affiliated with CBP. What I did was take their public files and scrape the tables in the PDFs to make them more accessible. I then combined some tables together and reshaped the data to make it easier to use for analysis. The data is now available in R, Stata, and Excel (.csv) formats.

The code used to scrape, clean, and test this data is available here: https://github.com/jacobkap/borderpatrol/

Please note that all the data is in fiscal years (October-September), not in calendar years.

There are 8 files and they all contains different information and some contains different number of years. Below is the file name, a brief description, the years of data available, and which variables it has, for each file.

Apprehensions and Seizures Statistics 2011-2017
This provides the annual number of seizures of drugs and weapons for aggregate border sectors between the years 2011 and 2017. Drug data also includes the amount of drugs seized (in pounds for all but heroin which is measured in ounces).
  • Sector
  • Fiscal year
  • Apprehensions from a special interest country
  • Rounds of ammunition
  • Total apprehensions
  • Pounds of cocaine
  • Number of cocaine seizures
  • Conveyances
  • Currency (in dollars)
  • Pounds of ecstasy
  • Number of ecstasy seizures
  • Number of firearms
  • Ounces of heroin
  • Number of heroin seizures
  • Pounds of marijuana
  • Number of marijuana seizures
  • Pounds of meth
  • Number of meth seizures
  • Pounds of other drugs (not cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, or marijuana)
  • Number of other drugs seizures ((not cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, or marijuana)
  • Apprehensions of illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico

Border Patrol Staffing 1992-2018
The annual number of agents employed for each sector in the country between 1992 and 2018.
  • Sector
  • Fiscal year
  • Number of agents

Family, Unaccompanied Children, and Total  Apprehensions 2000-2018
The monthly number of total apprehensions, family apprehensions (defined as "the number of individuals (either a child under 18 years old, parent, or legal guardian) apprehended with a family member by the U.S. Border Patrol."), or unaccompanied children (person under the age 18 traveling alone (without a family member)) for each sector in the country. Total apprehension data is available for the years 2000 to 2018. Family apprehension data is available for the years 2013 to 2018. Unaccompanied children data is available for the years 2010 to 2018.
  • Sector
  • Fiscal year
  • Month
  • Total apprehensions
  • Unaccompanied children apprehensions (fiscal years 2010-2018 only)
  • Family apprehensions (fiscal years 2013-2018 only)

Other than Mexico Apprehensions 2000-2018
The annual number of apprehensions for each sector in the country between 2000 and 2018. This also includes the annual number of apprehensions of immigrants from Mexico and the number of illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico.
  • Sector
  • Fiscal year
  • Total apprehensions
  • Total apprehensions of illegal immigrants from Mexico
  • Total apprehensions of illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico

Nationwide Total Apprehensions 1925-2018
This is a simple count of how many apprehensions of illegal immigrants were made in the United States each year between 1925 and 2018.
  • Fiscal year
  • Total apprehensions

Sector Profile 2011-2017
This provides a number of various variables for each sector in the country between the years 2011 and 2017.
  • Sector
  • Fiscal year
  • Number of agents
  • Total apprehensions
  • Apprehensions of illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico
  • Pounds of marijuana
  • Pounds of cocaine
  • Number of accepted prosecutions
  • Number of assaults
  • Number of rescues (Southwest border only)
  • Number of deaths (Southwest border only)
  • Number of accompanied children (under age 18) apprehended
  • Number of unaccompanied children (under age 18) apprehended
  • Total number of children (under age 18) apprehended
  • Total number of adults (age 18 or older) apprehended
  • Total number of females apprehended
  • Total number of males apprehended

Southwest Border Apprehensions 1960-2018
The annual number of apprehensions for each sector in the Southwest border between 1960 and 2018.
  • Sector
  • Fiscal year
  • Total apprehensions

Southwest Border Deaths 1998-2018
The annual number of deaths for each sector in the Southwest border between 1998 and 2018.
  • Sector
  • Fiscal year
  • Deaths


Some of the data sets present the data broken into border sectors. Below is a list of the three borders and the sectors each one includes.

Coastal Border
  • Livermore (closed after fiscal year 2004)
  • Miami
  • New Orleans
  • Ramey
Northern Border
  • Blaine 
  • Buffalo
  • Detroit
  • Grand Forks
  • Havre
  • Houlton
  • Spokane
Southwest Border
  • Big Bend
  • Del Rio
  • El Centro
  • El Paso
  • Laredo
  • Rio Grande Valley
  • San Diego
  • Tucson
  • Yuma




Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms CBP; immigration offenses; illegal alliens; customs and border protection; border; immigration; immigration policy; immigration status
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1925 – 2018 (Years available vary by data set)
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 1925 – 2018 (Years available vary by data set)
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) administrative records data; aggregate data

Methodology

Data Source:  View help for Data Source
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Stats and Summaries page.


Weights:  View help for Weights None
Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation Border sectors
Geographic Unit:  View help for Geographic Unit United States

Related Publications

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Published Versions

V5 [2021-01-16]

V4 [2020-07-01]

V3 [2019-12-27]

V2 [2019-04-30]

V1 [2019-04-29]

Export Metadata

Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

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This material is distributed exactly as it arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.