U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s San Diego Sector is experiencing a dramatic shift in its mission due to far fewer asylum seekers and undocumented migrant crossings.

CBP is spreading the message that you could be risking your life crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

“Catch and release is now over,” CBP Agent Justin Castrejon said. “You will receive serious consequences if you cross the border illegally.”

Castejon says the San Diego Sector was averaging 1,500 to 2,000 arrests per day. One year later, and it’s less than 30 people.

Agents are no longer spending most of their time processing and caring for those requesting asylum. Instead, they are back on patrol.

If it seems they are attempting more maritime crossings, both CBP and immigration advocate Pedro Rios say increased patrols have led to more captures, not more boats. 

“They are detecting more of them,” Rios said. “They are spending more time in the air, which means they will detect more of them that they might not have detected in the past.”

Maritime crossings have proved deadly. A recent incident near Torrey Pines State Beach killed three, and a 10-year-old Indian girl is likely the fourth. She is missing and presumed dead. Rios says attempting to cross illegally is more dangerous than ever.

NBC 7’s Dave Summers tells us more about those arrested in the South Bay and charged in connection with the deaths.

“The terrain, whether it is the desert or mountains or the maritime crossings, increasing the risk of injury or even death,” Rios said.

“These smugglers have no regard for the people they are smuggling. They don’t see them as human beings, only as human cargo,“ Castrejon said.

If caught, there could be fines, detention and deportation. Castrejon says the return is usually on a repatriation flight to Mexico City, instead of the nearest border town. The agent says that is a practice meant to put more distance between the migrants from the human smugglers.

“Sending them to Mexico City or even southern Mexico makes it more difficult to return and attempt that journey again,“ Rios said.

Castrejon says the majority of those attempting to cross now are Mexican nationals, unlike the surges of last year that included people from countries all over the world.

Rios says he and his group, the American Friends Service Committee, are spending more of their time holding informational meetings with migrants who were deported or waiting for asylum in Tijuana shelters.