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US News

More than 18,000 ‘gotaways’ have illegally entered US in the last 16 days, CBP chief warns

By
Alex Oliveira
Published Oct. 17, 2023, 5:47 p.m. ET

More than 18,000 people have evaded border patrol agents and slipped into the United States illegally since October 1, Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens announced Tuesday.

The shocking number of so-called “gotaways” — people known to have entered the country illegally without being caught — equates to about 1,125 people daily over the last 16 days.

“These are individuals whose identities & purpose we do not know,” Chief Owens wrote on X.

“That is why you need every Border Patrol agent to be in the field and on patrol,” he said.

The announcement comes as Border Patrol agents are stretched to the limit as they attempt to deal with the huge influx of people who are handing themselves in at the border and seeking asylum in the US.

Former Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott recently told The Post the sheer number of people overwhelmeing the border means agents have to spend all their time processing migrants and filling in paperwork for them, instead of patrolling the border looking for the drug smugglers, terrorists and potential gotaways.

The numbers of migrants arriving at the US border to surrender themselves to agents has increased in recent years
The numbers of migrants arriving at the US border to surrender themselves to agents has increased in recent years James Keivom

His thoughts were echoed by National Border Patrol Council head Brandon Judd, who said: “We’re not out there actively doing law enforcement duties — we’re doing administrative duties. We’re not protecting the American people.”

The October numbers offers a foreboding look of the year ahead on the US border, which has seen the number of gotaways rising annually since President Biden took office in 2021.

Border Protection agents haven’t released a complete gotaway estimate for the 2023 fiscal year, but as of May there had been an estimated 530,000 — indicating the full year will smash the record-setting 600,000 estimated gotaways in 2022.

Before that, at least 389,000 gotaways made it into the country in 2020, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

A Border Protection agent patrolling the US Border. The numbers of people evading agents has been increasing, too
A Border Protection agent patrolling the US Border. The numbers of people evading agents has been increasing, too @USBPChief / X

In total, more than 1.5 million people have slipped into the US without being apprehended during the three years of Biden’s term, according to various estimates.

By contrast, there were a total of just 415,000 gotaways during the last three years of Donald Trump’s presidency put together.

Combined with the more than 2.3 million migrants who have arrived at the border and been allowed into the country with notices to appear before an immigration court, nearly four million people have been let into the US since Biden took office, according to figures compiled by Syracuse University’s TRAC immigration database.

Those court notices to appear before an immigration court — known as NTAs — can be given to asylum seekers years in advance, during which time they are allowed to reside in the US.

The numbers of issued court dates has left the system completely overwhelmed — there is currently a backlog of about 2.7 million cases still pending, according to TRAC.