The final figures are in, and the number of unaccompanied children and families with children who arrived illegally in Texas in the summer of 2015 was down 42% over last summer,

News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.

U.S. Rep Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo), whose district includes much of the area where the flood of mainly Central American refugees arrived in Texas last summer, says he is happy to see that the

overall numbers were down, but there are two things that concern him.

"First, there has been a recent spike in the number of immigrant children and families caught crossing over illegally in September, almost 10,000 were derained, an unseasonably high number," he said.

Cuellar says the number of children sneaking into Texas remains unreasonably high.

"The latest U.S. Border Patrol data shows that while the number of apprehensions of unaccompanied children and families along the border has fallen, 39,970 unaccompanied children were still

apprehended over the last year, and 39,838 parents with children remain detained."

Cuellar gives much of the credit to the Mexican government for stopping the flood of Central American immigrants into Texas, by beefing up security along its border with Guatemala, and making it

more difficult for people to climb on top of 'the Beast,' the north south freight train which carried many immigrants from Southern Mexico to the U.S. border in 2014.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement also spent $1.2 million on a media campaign in Central America to try to warn would be immigrants of the dangers of making the trip and the fact that once

they arrive in the U.S. they will be imprisoned and deported.

The flood of Central American immigrants in 2014 was blamed largely on Mexican drug cartels trying to 'diversify.' They would tell Central Americans, tired of vicious gang, government incompetence,

and corruption, as well as the grinding poverty many people face, that all they had to do was make it into the U.S. with a child in tow and they would be granted what they called a 'permiso,'

a ficticious document they claimed would allow the immigrants to remain in the country.

Officials say the cartels will charge between $3,000 and $8,000 for the one way trip to the U.S., money the cartels loan families with cartel-style conditions for repayment.

Cuellar says the U.S. also most do more to toughen the U.S. border to make sure that illegal immigrants cannot enter the country.

"I believe in the right of migrants to enter our country, but I believe they must do so illegally," Cuellar said. "I will continue to work toward this to further decrease the number of unaccompanied

children and families entered the U.S. illegally."

Read more: Central American Immigration Numbers Down from 2014, But Still High | News Radio 1200 WOAI