Less unaccompanied and undocumented children have been detained at the border with Mexico in the past month than before.

For the first time since the crisis began, the Custom and Border Patrol (CBP) stopped fewer children in July than any other previous month, according to EFE news agency. The new numbers, released by the Department of Homeland Security, show a steep decline in the number of undocumented children crossing from Mexico.

Since October, around 63,000 children have crossed into the United States, according to EFE. In March, 7,176 children crossed then 7,702 in April, 10,579 in May and 10,628 in June, according to Homeland Security numbers. However, in July 5,508 unaccompanied children were detained.

"While the decrease in apprehensions in July is good news and reflects a positive trend that we hope continues, the current numbers are still higher than the number of apprehensions for children and adults with children during past years," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement.

According to Doris Meissner, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration policy think-tank who spoke with the Arizona Republic, the dwindling numbers of children could be caused by combination of different factors.

"I think it's a combination of factors: stepped up anti-smuggling efforts, the fact that Mexico is returning substantially larger numbers of people crossing their territory ... and the fact that the countries themselves have been making a huge effort to tell people that what the smugglers are saying is not true and that the journey is really dangerous," she said.

Back in July, DHS announced its continued effort to capture human smugglers, known as coyotes, which help immigrants from Mexico and Central America cross into the U.S.

In the latest of these operations, Guatemalan police have arrested seven suspected smugglers, according to The Associated Press. The group is believed to be part of a larger organization that smuggles people, including children, into the U.S. Bank accounts belonging to the suspects contained money movements worth up to $3 million.

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