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  4. CBP Enforcement Statistics FY2018

CBP Enforcement Statistics FY2018

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the nation’s largest federal law enforcement agency charged with securing the nation’s borders and facilitating international travel and trade. Our top priority is to keep terrorists and their weapons from entering the United States.

At the nation’s more than 300 ports of entry, CBP officers have a complex mission with broad law enforcement authorities tied to screening all foreign visitors, returning American citizens and imported cargo that enters the U.S. Along the nation’s borders, the United States Border Patrol and Air and Marine Operations are the uniformed law enforcement arms of CBP responsible for securing U.S. borders between ports of entry.

The following is a summary of CBP enforcement actions related to inadmissibles, apprehensions, arrests of individuals with criminal convictions and individuals who have been apprehended multiple times crossing the border illegally.

Visit CBP's Southwest Border Migration page for demographic information regarding apprehensions and inadmissibles on the southwest border and the Use of Force page for use-of-force statistics and case summaries.

Total CBP Enforcement Actions

Numbers below reflect FY2016 - FY2018

Enforcement Actions FY2016 FY2017 FY2018
Office of Field Operations (OFO)  
Total Inadmissibles1 274,821 216,370 279,036
U.S. Border Patrol  
Total Apprehensions2 415,816 310,531 404,142
Total Enforcement Actions 690,637 526,901 683,178

1Inadmissibles refers to individuals encountered at ports of entry who are seeking lawful admission into the United States but are determined to be inadmissible, individuals presenting themselves to seek humanitarian protection under our laws, and individuals who withdraw an application for admission and return to their countries of origin within a short timeframe.


2Apprehensions refers to the physical control or temporary detainment of a person who is not lawfully in the U.S. which may or may not result in an arrest.

Arrests of Individuals With Criminal Convictions or Those Wanted by Law Enforcement

Numbers below reflect FY2016-2018 totals

Arrests of Individuals FY2016 FY2017 FY2018
Office of Field Operations (OFO)  
Criminal Aliens3 Encountered 14,090 10,596 13,788
NCIC4 Arrests 8,129 7,656 5,889
U.S. Border Patrol  
Criminal Aliens3 Encountered 12,842 8,531 6,698
Criminal Aliens with Outstanding Wants or Warrants 3,697 2,675 1,550

3Criminal Aliens refers to aliens who have been convicted of crime, whether in the United States or abroad, so long as the conviction is for conduct which is deemed criminal by the United States. Criminal aliens encountered at ports of entry are inadmissible, absent extenuating circumstances, and represent a subset of total OFO inadmissibles. U.S. Border Patrol arrests of criminal aliens are a subset of total apprehensions. Visit U.S. Border Patrol Criminal Alien Statistics for a breakdown of criminal alien stats by type of conviction.


4NCIC (National Crime Information Center) arrests refers to the number of CBP arrests of individuals, including U.S. citizens, who are wanted by other law enforcement agencies.

Currency Seizures

Fiscal Year FY 12 FY 13 FY 14 FY 15 FY 16 FY 17 FY 18
Amount (USD) $64,780,287 $74,911,436 $81,205,691 $75,964,824 $62,101,328 $65,002,856 $64,741,939

Fiscal Year FY 12 FY 13 FY 14 FY 15 FY 16 FY 17 FY 18 
Amount (USD) $7,575,360 $6,003,336 $7,991,385 $4,741,288 $7,924,537 $5,869,004

$7,176,142

Fiscal Year OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP TOTAL
Amount (USD) $35,829 $26,285 $2,822 $203,213 $117,933 $157,669 $17,913 $256,033 $31,494 $14,339 $169,592 $80,358 $1,113,480

Drug Seizures

Fiscal Year FY2012 FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016 FY2017 FY2018
Cocaine 45,260 39,075 41,312 38,145 52,803 62,331 51,731
Heroin 3,780 3,990 4,314 5,530 4,224 3,925 5,208
Marijuana 522,614 469,995 437,950 602,795 515,381 361,564 300,102
Methamphetamine 14,131 20,739 23,234 29,001 37,703 50,569 56,373
Fentanyl n/a n/a n/a n/a 440 1,196 1,747

*weights are in pounds (lb)

Fiscal Year FY2012 FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016 FY2017 FY2018
Cocaine 12,161 4,696 4,554 11,220 5,473 9,346 6,550
Heroin 430 576 606 518 566 953 568
Marijuana 2,299,864 2,430,123 1,922,545 1,538,307 1,294,052 861,231 461,030
Methamphetamine 3,715 3,580 3,930 6,443 8,224 10,328 11,314
Fentanyl n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 181 388

*weights are in pounds (lb)

Visit the U.S. Border Patrol Nationwide Checkpoint Drug Seizures in Pounds webpage for a monthly breakdown of drug seizures at U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints. 

Gang Affiliated Enforcement

FY2014 - FY2018

Gang Affiliation FY2014 FY2015 FY2016 FY2017 FY2018
107th St         1
18th Street 96 84 47 61 145
Angelino Heights Sureno 13 0 0 0 1 0
Bandidos 1 0 0 0 0
Barrio Azteca 7 6 4 3 4
Border Brothers 0 0 0 0 1
Brown Pride 0 0 0 0 0
Chirizos 0 0 0 0 1
Folk Nation 0 0 0 0 0
Hard Times 13 0 0 1 0 0
Hells Angels 0 0 1 0 0
Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos (HPL) 2 2 0 3 2
Latin Kings 17 16 18 6 7
Locos Surenos Trece         1
Los Zetas 0 0 1 0 0
MS-13 437 335 253 228 413
Mara-R 0 0 0 1 1
Maravilla Salva Trucha 0 0 1 0 2
Mexican Mafia 3 4 6 4 3
Mexicles 0 0 0 0 0
Mexikanemi 7 2 0 3 0
Nortenos 13 14 5 6 5
Other 183 154 136 90 82
Outlaws 1 0 0 0 0
Paisas 86 73 119 53 62
Partido Revolucionario Mexican (PRM) 0 0 0 0 0
Playboys 0 0 1 0 0
South Los 1 0 0 0 1
Surenos (sur-13) 160 140 90 66 66
Tango Blast 18 14 16 8 8
Texas Syndicate 2 0 3 1 1
Vilanos-13 0 0 0 0 1
West Park 0 0 0 1 0
Zetas 0 0 0 1 1
Total 1,034 844 702 536 808

 

U.S. Border Patrol Recidivism Rates

Fiscal Year FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16 FY17 FY18
Recidivism5 16% 14% 14% 12% 10% -

5 Recidivism refers to percentage of individuals apprehended more than one time by the Border Patrol within a fiscal year.

Last Modified: May 20, 2024