Roughly 66,000 illegal migrants evaded apprehension by border officials in October, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) source told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The number is another high for the Biden administration, which faced a record of nearly 2.3 million migrant encounters at the southern border in fiscal year 2022. There were nearly 600,000 recorded gotaways, or illegal migrants who evade apprehension that are caught on sensors run by federal authorities, at the southern border in fiscal year 2022, and over 389,000 in fiscal year 2021, Fox News previously reported. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Migrants Are Given ‘Literal Roadmaps’ To Reach The US Border. And Big Tech Is Funding It)
“I believe that 66,000 is the most getaways that we’ve ever had,” National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd told the DCNF.
Several other outlets reported gotaway numbers, including Fox News with at least 64,000, and Townhall with at least 86,000.
WATCH:
Areas like the Tucson, Arizona, border sector are known for illegal migrant runners because of its rugged terrain and gaps that exist in the border wall built by the Trump administration that allow for smugglers to run without detection or arrest, National Border Patrol Council Vice President Art del Cueto told the DCNF in May.
Del Cueto pointed out areas in Sasabe, Arizona, that are known for gotaways, where the Sinaloa cartel operates just on the other side of the border.
“A lot of these people don’t want to get caught,” del Cueto said. “So, if there’s a gap further down where they’ll bring groups, they’ll turn themselves in through that opening in the fence, if they know that that’s gonna distract the agents. So agents are now gonna have to worry about apprehending those, they gotta worry about transport.”
The surge at the border continues to overwhelm agents tied up with processing them, pulling resources away from the frontlines, Judd explained.
“We don’t have enough agents in the field. We have too many agents dealing with administrative duties. The Biden policies force agents to release people that are in custody. Anytime you release people that are in custody, you are, in other words, rewarding them,” Judd said.
DHS didn’t immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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