Border Patrol agents apprehended 209,664 illegal aliens along the southern border during October, according to provisional Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data obtained by The Epoch Times.
However, it’s the “gotaways” that make up the most notable increase.
Each month, Border Patrol agents record the number of illegal aliens that they detect but don’t catch, which they call “gotaways.” However, that number isn’t publicly available and the number that go undetected is impossible to estimate.
Gotaways are generally described as illegal aliens who would have no legal pathway to enter the United States, and they include previously deported aliens and criminals.
During the month of October, agents recorded almost 87,000 gotaways along the southern border, double the number recorded in August.
For the first time, the agency has split the gotaway numbers into two separate categories: Border Zone (68,393 in October) and Interior Zone (18,403).
The numbers reflect a marked shift in illegal border traffic, with the El Paso sector recording 20,460 gotaways, almost triple the number in April. The El Paso sector includes New Mexico, and aside from the city itself, most of that border region is remote ranchland.
Tucson still leads the nation in the number of gotaways; in that sector, agents recorded almost exactly the same number of gotaways (23,699) as the number of illegal aliens they apprehended (23,723).
Del Rio dropped to third behind El Paso for gotaways, but only by 100.
In general, illegal border-crossers are now being funneled through El Paso in greater numbers.
In October, El Paso agents apprehended more than 53,200 illegal aliens, the highest number among the nine southern border sectors for the month and only 10,000 fewer arrests than in the entire 2020 fiscal year for the region.
The city of El Paso is receiving millions of dollars from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to feed, house, and transport illegal aliens once they’re released by Border Patrol.
Since May, when the city issued an emergency ordinance, it has set up a mammoth operation in conjunction with local NGOs to provide thousands of illegal immigrants with meals, hotel rooms, and help with bus or plane tickets to their chosen destination.
More than 100 city employees are working full time to assist with the operation, and several council members have expressed concern that local projects are being delayed because of the shift in resources.
El Paso Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino said during a Sept. 27 council meeting that CBP had increased its flights of illegal aliens out of the city to up to six per day.
In addition, the city council approved the use of up to $6 million from the city’s general fund to pay for charter buses to transport illegal aliens to cities around the United States, with the expectation that the federal government will reimburse the funds.
Currently, the city is sending busloads to New York, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The National Border Patrol Council, which represents about 18,000 border agents, said on Nov. 7 that the border is “in the sorriest condition it’s ever been in” since the agency was formed in 1924.
“He’s an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions.”
