() Illegal border crossings and the apprehension of migrants have reached record lows across the majority of the U.S.-Mexico border, but both have spiked recently in one remote region in south Texas.

The Sanderson Border Patrol station has made 72 arrests of migrants already this month, Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland told . The uptick in illegal crossings in the Big Bend sector comes less than a month after border agents working the same area made just 16 arrests in all of March.

The local uptick in border crossings is being seen by federal and local law enforcement less than a month after U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported the lowest number of arrests along the border in at least five decades. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that border crossings have dropped by 95% since the winter of 2023.

Cleveland told that the area has seen a considerable slowdown in illegal border crossings since President Donald Trump took office in January. However, Cleveland fears that as more areas along the border are given more resources to slow the flow of illegal crossings, densely populated areas like Terrell County could gain traction with migrants.

In addition to this month’s arrests, the sector has reported 14 outstanding cases in which migrants have been seen crossing the border on cameras but have not yet been arrested. The sector has also reported 11 known “gotaways” a term used by federal border agents for migrants who are never caught after they are seen on camera or their footprints are spotted by law enforcement.

On Monday, a group of 19 immigrants from Mexico and a Cuban woman were arrested in the county while trying to evade law enforcement. The apprehension was the second of a “larger” group of at least 20 migrants in two days this week, Cleveland said.

When crossings take place and groups of migrants are seen by agents and officers, they tend to scatter into the brush, the sheriff said. Immigrants who are in vehicles after crossing the border are typically involved in high-speed chases with local deputies. Migrants are also taking advantage of a full moon, which they rely on to navigate open desert spaces.

“They want to make it to their destination, and they want to get away,” Cleveland said.

The fact that larger groups are crossing into Texas in the Sanderson sector tells Cleveland that other groups have found success. The local border patrol sector has 50 agents to patrol 91 miles of land. But in addition to seeing more crossings taking place, the “unknown” nature of who is attempting to cross the border illegally adds to the challenge of patrolling the area.

Criminal smuggling organizations and individual smugglers, known as coyotes, typically do not use the same route across the border more than once, said Cleveland, who added smugglers have also destroyed technology that agents have installed to monitor border activity.

The fact migrants have so many points of entry along the border to choose from makes agents’ jobs even tougher.

Cleveland told that Trump’s voice about closing the border has had a significant affect on how many migrants are attempting to enter the U.S. But he said that Congress now needs to act to provide more resources to assist agencies like the Terrell County Sheriff’s Office and the the Sanderson Sector Border Patrol with migrant apprehensions.

“Yes, we have God-made barriers that prevent people from crossing,” Cleveland said, “but there are still nooks and crannies they can cross through.”