The Obama administration removed 368,644 immigrants from the country last year.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director John Sandweg says 235,093 of those immigrants were arrested at or near the U.S. border with Mexico.

This is the fewest number of immigrants deported by ICE since the end of President George W. Bush’s administration.

Last year ICE removed more than 409,000 immigrants.

Sandweg says significant increases in the numbers of Central Americans arrested along the Mexican border led to the drop in deportations this year. He said those case take more time.

The Border Patrol made more than 409,000 arrests at the border during the 2013 budget year that ended in September.

ICE has removed more than 1.9 million immigrants since 2009.

(AP)