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 V5

Name File Type Size Last Modified
apprehensions_seizures_stats_2011_2019.zip application/zip 65.6 KB 07/01/2020 09:57:AM
border_patrol_staffing_1992_2019.zip application/zip 65.4 KB 07/01/2020 09:57:AM
family_child_total_monthly_2000_2019.zip application/zip 217 KB 07/01/2020 10:19:AM
nationwide_total_apprehensions_1925_2019.zip application/zip 53.5 KB 07/01/2020 09:57:AM
other_than_mexico_apprehensions_2000_2019.zip application/zip 77.4 KB 07/01/2020 09:57:AM
raw_files.zip application/zip 6.6 MB 07/01/2020 10:19:AM
sector_profile_2011_2019.zip application/zip 91.3 KB 07/01/2020 09:57:AM
southwest_border_apprehensions_1960_2019.zip application/zip 65.7 KB 07/01/2020 09:57:AM
southwest_border_deaths_1998_2019.zip application/zip 55.6 KB 07/01/2020 09:57:AM

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], 2021-01-16. https://doi.org/10.3886/E109522V5

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary
Version 5 release notes:
  • Changes release notes description, does not change data.
Version 4 release notes:
  • Adds fiscal year 2019 data.
  • Please note than some pre-2019 values are different because the CPB has updated the data, not due to changes in the code to clean the data.
Version 3 release notes:
  • Adds 2018 Apprehensions and Seizures Statistics
  • Adds 2018 Sector Profile
  • Adds data in the following formats: SPSS
Version 2 release notes:
  • 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.

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 2011-2019
This provides the annual number of seizures of drugs and weapons for aggregate border sectors between the years 2011 and 2019. 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 1992-2019
The annual number of agents employed for each sector in the country between 1992 and 2019.
  • Sector
  • Fiscal year
  • Number of agents

Family, Unaccompanied Children, and Total  Apprehensions 2000-2019
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 2019. Family apprehension data is available for the years 2013 to 2019. Unaccompanied children data is available for the years 2010 to 2019.
  • Sector
  • Fiscal year
  • Month
  • Total apprehensions
  • Unaccompanied children apprehensions (fiscal years 2010-2019 only)
  • Family apprehensions (fiscal years 2013-2019 only)

Other than Mexico Apprehensions 2000-2019
The annual number of apprehensions for each sector in the country between 2000 and 2019. 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 1925-2019
This is a simple count of how many apprehensions of illegal immigrants were made in the United States each year between 1925 and 2019.
  • Fiscal year
  • Total apprehensions

Sector Profile 2011-2019
This provides a number of various variables for each sector in the country between the years 2011 and 2019.
  • 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 1960-2019
The annual number of apprehensions for each sector in the Southwest border between 1960 and 2019.
  • Sector
  • Fiscal year
  • Total apprehensions

Southwest Border Deaths 1998-2019
The annual number of deaths for each sector in the Southwest border between 1998 and 2019.
  • 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 policy; immigration status; border patrol; undocumented immigrant; border protection; immigration arrest
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1925 – 2019 (Data is in fiscal years, not calendar years. Years available vary by data set)
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 1925 – 2019 (Data is in fiscal years, not calendar years. 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]

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DDI 2.5

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