Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas unveiled startling statistics during a national security hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. He revealed that over 600,000 individuals entered the United States without encountering border agents during the 2023 fiscal year. Mayorkas emphasized that this challenge of “gotaways” has persisted at the border for many years.
Mayorkas acknowledged, “The phenomenon of gotaways is something that has been a challenge for the department of homeland security for decades.” He went on to underscore, “In fact, it is a powerful example of a broken immigration system.”
Customs and Border Protection data from the fiscal year that concluded on September 30 revealed that 900,000 migrants had entered the country legally through the southwest border under humanitarian parole to pursue asylum applications. When combined with the number of Gotaways, this results in a total of 1.5 million border crossings in the past year. These arrivals have placed considerable strain on services in major metropolitan areas such as New York, Chicago, Denver, and Washington D.C.
Senator Roger Marshall (R., Kansas) raised concerns during the hearing, stating that the total number of gotaways alone since President Biden’s inauguration in 2021 has reached 1.7 million people. This statistic was corroborated by findings from the Republican Committee on Homeland Security, published last week.
Even in the current year, the influx shows no sign of abating, as CBP Chief Jason Owens issued a warning. He reported that over 1,000 individuals are still managing to cross the borders every day. Owens stressed the challenges this presents, explaining, “These are individuals whose identities and purpose we do not know. That is why you need every Border Patrol agent to be in the field and on patrol.”
Since the beginning of the 2024 fiscal year, Owens estimated that more than 18,000 gotaways have already entered the United States between October 1st and 16th.
Arizona has experienced a particularly pronounced impact in recent weeks as migrants continue to pour across the southern border. Over the weekend, Border Patrol agents in the Tuscon Sector of Pima County apprehended around 2,600 migrants, increasing the total number of individuals detained in the area to 3,200, as reported by the Arizona Daily Star. Pima County spokesperson Mark Evans noted that they expected to see 800 to 900 migrants released daily as part of the processing.
Simultaneously, a group of approximately 5,000 migrants embarked on a journey towards the U.S. border on foot, departing from Tapachula, one of Mexico’s southernmost cities near the Guatemalan border. They had been awaiting transit papers but set out on their journey after experiencing delays. At the front of the column, they carried a white cross adorned with red drops of blood and the phrase “Containment is my death, liberation is life” written in Spanish. On Tuesday, they reached Huehuetán after covering a distance of about 16 miles.
Source: Matzav
