That's much lower than the 81 percent success rate that Homeland Security cited publicly using a different counting method. The huge drop in illegal entries over the last decade coincides with major increases in border security spending, which has reached $14 billion annually. The Border Patrol achieved an 11-point improvement in 2014 after years of slow but steady gains. The primary measure that Homeland Security has released for public consumption is the number of Border Patrol arrests, which tells how many people got caught but not how many got away. Homeland Security approaches the job by tracking physical evidence, such as footprints in the desert and other signs of human presence, and by agent sightings.

Source: ABC News October 06, 2016 22:10 UTC