exclusive: The number of illegal immigrants fleeing Border Patrol agents has skyrocketed under the Biden administration, according to new data obtained by Fox News.
The number of Border Patrol fugitives (illegal immigrants who evade agents but are detected by other forms of surveillance, such as cameras or sensors) nationally is determined by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Fox in October. obtained by.
They found that between 2010 and 2020, there were more than 1.4 million vacations, ranging from a low of 86,226 in 2011 to a high of 171,663 in 2013.
Border Patrol official says threat from 'fugitives' at southern border 'keeps me up at night'
In fiscal year 2020, the number of border holidays reached 136,808. That number then increased to 387,398 in fiscal year 2021, which coincided with the final months of the Trump administration and the first months of the Biden administration.
As the number of migrants at the southern border reaches crisis levels, the number of fugitives also increases, jumping to 606,131 in 2022 and 670,674 in 2023.
This means that there were more holidays in the 2021-23 period (1.6 million) than in the 10 years between 2010 and 2020 (1.4 million).
So far in fiscal year 2024, which began in October, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials separately told Fox News there have been more than 175,000 escapes.
Officials have regularly raised concerns about the number of migrants crossing the border without being encountered, even though it is a relatively small number compared to the more than 1.3 million migrants encountered this year.
“That's a big number, but what keeps me up at night is that there are 140,000 known fugitives,” said Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens, who believes the number is much lower. he told CBS News in March.
Illegal immigration from this foreign enemy is increasing across the border.
“If someone is willing to risk a remote and extremely dangerous situation to evade capture, you have to ask yourself why. Why would they be willing to take that risk? “That's a concern to me. What's a concern to me is that we don't know who that person is. We don't know where they're coming from,” he told a House committee in May 2023. No. I don't know what they're doing.” We don't know what they brought with them, but for those wearing this uniform, the unknown is dangerous and threatening. ”
Officials also said increased investment in technology has resulted in greater situational awareness than in previous years, leading to the detection of more “runaways” than in previous years.
“We're in a better position than we have been in years past because we're gaining more detection capacity, we're … doing more, we have additional processing coordinators,” Owens said. he said.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas previously pointed to changes in migration flows in his correspondence with Congress.
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“Prior to 2013, the vast majority of individuals attempting to cross the border did so without being apprehended,” he wrote in a letter to the House Homeland Security Committee in January. “Under this administration, the estimated annual clearance rate has averaged 78%, the same average clearance rate as the previous administration.”
Instead, DHS said it is working within a “broken” immigration system that is in desperate need of reform and additional funding from Congress. It also notes that since May 2023, there have been 720,000 deportations or deportations of illegal immigrants, more than in all fiscal years since 2011.
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Most recently, he supported a bipartisan Senate bill that would increase funding and provide a mechanism to turn back border crossers once they reach a certain level. But conservative lawmakers rejected the measure, saying it would normalize high levels of illegal immigration.
FOX News' Griff Jenkins and Emmett Jones contributed to this report.