The Border Patrol management all the time during the Minuteman Project kept doing their best "Baghdad Bob" and saying that the Minutement were having no effect on border crossing numbers. They lied. And now to not be caught in their lies they have to somehow depress apprehension numbers to keep them nearly as low as they were when the Minutemen were on the border.
BP management has always played politics with the apprehension numbers. Their orders even have a name among the agents - "sitting on an X".