Illegal border crossings hit a decade-long high in February, but they're still historically low

WASHINGTON - Trump administration officials say an increase in the number of Central American families and minors seeking asylum has brought the immigration system to the "breaking point." The 66,450 migrants arrested crossing the southwestern border in February - a rate of more than 2,300 a day - was more than almost any month in the past decade.

Yet illegal crossings remain at historic lows overall. In fiscal 2018, which ended Sept. 30, 2017, U.S. agents arrested 396,579 people at the U.S.-Mexico border. From the 1980s into the mid-2000s, that number routinely surpassed 1 million, hitting a high of more than 1.6 million arrests in 2000.