I appreciate the statistics but my guess is that they are only telling half the story. The published statistics prove that the Minutemen have had a strong deterrence effect. But I'll bet that they have also had a big impact on the effectiveness of enforcement.
I have always heard that for every illegal that the Border Patrol catches, 3 or 4 allude them and successfully abscond into our interior. While the Border Patrol is working damn hard and making over a million arrests per year, there are not enough of them and consequently their apprehension rate is miserable. The border is effectively wide open and every illegal willing to keep trying eventually succeeds in slipping through.
My guess is that not only are less illegals attempting to cross, but of those few who try, I bet a lot lower percentage is successfully eluding the Border Patrol. All the extra eyes have got to be driving the apprehension rate through the roof. It sounds like on the section of the border where the Minutemen are in action that you all are arresting maybe 9 out of every 10.
I did not have time to post all the numbers.
While Naco and Douglas have a sharp drop in apprehensions, Ajo, Casa Grande, Norgalas and Tucson have had sharp increases in their daily average apprehensions.
All the Minutemen are really doing is shifting the crossing of illegals east and west.
Illegals don't fear the border patrol, but they do fear the Minutemen and have moved east and west to cross the border.