WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- More than 351,700 illegal immigrants have been arrested at the Arizona border since a new border security initiative was launched six months ago to stem illegal immigration into the southwest United States, the Homeland Security Department announced Tuesday.

    The figure represented a 56 percent increase in apprehensions in the six-month period in 2004 over the same period between March 16 and Sept. 7 in 2003.

    Since the department kicked off the multi-agency Arizona Border Control (ABC) initiative in March this year, prosecutions of human smuggling organizations increased by 68 percent to 1,431 in 2004 from 973 during the same period between in 2003.

    The ABC initiative was launched on March 16 and would continue beyond its originally end date of Sept. 30.

    Meanwhile, migrant desert rescues were more than doubled, potentially saving 697 lives, and narcotics seizures rose about 163,000 kg in 2004 from about 74,870 kg in the same period in 2003.

    As part of the ABC initiative, the Homeland Security Departmentput into use unmanned aerial vehicles to increase border surveillance of illegal activities in the area, in addition to two additional helicopters that have been permanently reassigned to boost air capability along the 600-km border with Mexico.

    To speed up the repatriation of illegal immigrants, the United States and Mexico jointly launched in July an Interior Repatriation Program, aimed at returning illegal migrants to their hometowns in the interior of Mexico City on a voluntary basis. As of Sept. 19, the pilot program had repatriated more than 12,000 Mexican nationals who entered the US illegally. Enditem