530,000 migrants illegally sneaked into US since October, border chief admits
Over half a million people have crossed into the US illegally and not been stopped by border patrol in the last eight months, an official revealed Wednesday.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Chief Raul Ortiz said there have been an estimated 530,000 migrants ‘gotaways’ since the beginning of fiscal year 2023, which began in October.
Gotaways are those who were spotted by border patrol but unable to be apprehended, triggered motion sensor cameras in remote areas, or were otherwise known to have stolen into the country.
The true number of people who have made it into the US illegally is likely to be even higher.
The number of gotaways is on track to be the highest in recent years, after 599,000 were estimated in fiscal year 2022, and 389,155 in 2021, according to Fox News sources.
Ortiz revealed the staggering figures during a meeting Wednesday, at which he also revealed agents have apprehended approximately 1.33 million migrants so far in fiscal year 2023.
The agency set a record for apprehensions in 2022 with 2.4 million.
The southern border is currently besieged with tens of thousands of migrants who have amassed at various points waiting for the end of Title 42, the pandemic-era measure that has allowed border patrol to swiftly eject migrants from certain countries without hearing their asylum claims, citing public health reasons.
The federal policy applied to those coming from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and was originally enacted under President Donald Trump. It allowed for migrants to be rejected from the US and sent back to Mexico.
But having to process hundreds or thousands of people a day has taken a huge toll on border patrol officers, even though they have been given extra support, in the form of 24,000 law enforcement officers stationed along the US-Mexico border, in addition to the deployment of 1,500 active-duty troops and 2,500 National Guard members.
After months of silence on the matter and allegations of not being planned and ready for the expiration of Title 42, the Biden administration finally started to reveal their plans on Wednesday.
Once Title 42 expires, migrants will be processed under another measure, Title 8, which can have stiffer penalties for illegal border crossers.
Under Title 42 when a person is rejected from the border there is no penalty. Under Title 8 removal proceedings, people are usually banned from entering the US for five years and will be prosecuted if they try to enter again.
What is Title 42 and what does its end mean for US border immigration?
What is Title 42?
Title 42 is a federal health measure enforced by the US Border Patrol. It allows the agency to kick certain migrants out of the US and return them to Mexico. This includes asylum seekers, who under international law have the legal right to make an asylum claim in America.
Currently, migrants who cross the border illegally and who are from Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua or Venezuela are subject to Title 42 and could be sent to Mexico.
How did Title 42 start?
President Donald Trump invoked the law in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue the policy. The Trump administration made the case that keeping migrants out of the country would slow down the spread of infections and maintain the safety of federal agents encountering migrants.
What has happened with Title 42 under Biden?
When President Biden took over, he continued to enforce Title 42 with one important change from his predecessor. Biden said Border Patrol agents were only allowed to expel migrants from certain countries under his direction. That meant migrants seeking asylum from countries like Cuba and Venezuela could still seek asylum if they arrived at the border and stay in the US while their cases were decided in court — unless they had a criminal record.
What is happening with Title 42 now?
Title 42 is supposed to be a health policy, not an immigration law. It will end at 11:59 p.m. May 11, when the Biden administration ends all COVID-19-related policies.
Why is it controversial?
Many have called for the policy’s end, saying it’s illegal and that international law guarantees people the right to seek asylum.
Others, like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, warn that the southern border could see up to 13,000 migrants per day crossing with the intention to stay in the country when the measure ends.
What would the end of Title 42 mean for immigration into the US?
It’s unclear exactly how many people have been expelled under Title 42 because there have been scores of people who have attempted to enter the country numerous times and been rejected again and again, but the US Border Patrol said it made an all-time high of more than 2.3 million arrests at the border in the last fiscal year. Forty percent of people who were expelled from the country were ejected under the rules of Title 42.
Border agents are also expected to lean heavily on a new immigration rule, announced Wednesday, that will allow them to turn away asylum-seekers who turn up at the border if they do not already have an asylum appointment or have not sought asylum in a country on their way to the US.
“If you’ve left your home, you passed through a couple of other countries and did not try to make an asylum claim there…it’s called a reputable presumption,” said CBP Deputy Commissioner Benjamin C. Huffman.
“We’re going to do an expedited [removals] for single adults. We’re going to do as many as we can while they’re still in CBP custody.”
Huffman added: “You’re presumed to not qualify [for asylum] unless you have extraordinary circumstances.”
However, those new measures are expected to lead to an increase in people paying cartels and smugglers to shepherd them into the US through illegal routes.
Sheriffs in rural areas have begged the administration for help and resources to help them secure the border.
The sheriff of sparsely populated Terrell County, Texas, said he arrested nine border crossers for each of his county’s 800 citizens in 2022, a 540% increase in the number captured since 2020.
Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland said his team arrested 7,400 illegal migrants last year but recorded 8,000 gotaways.
He told The Post: “There’s many more out there. When you have 91 miles of border — we don’t know all that is happening out there.
“We’re seeing [them] but we can’t chase them because we don’t have enough people to go out there and give chase.”
Meanwhile, Mexico has agreed to continue taking Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans rejected from the US border when Title 42 expires, officials announced in a landmark deal last week.
