It appears illegal immigrants are “getting away” from Border Patrol under the Biden administration in record numbers. New data reveals a drastic uptick in the number of illegals eluding the authorities amid the crisis at the southern border.
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The data, obtained by Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin, reveals that over 1.6 million “gotaways” were recorded in Fiscal Year 2021 through 2023 — compared to 1.4 million from FY 2010 through 2020 — and over 175,000 “gotaways” have been recorded in this fiscal year, reflecting a marked increase from prior administrations over the past 13 years. The new numbers show how miserably the White House has handled immigration under President Joe Biden.
The numbers of Border Patrol nationwide gotaways — illegal immigrants who avoided agents but were detected by other forms of surveillance such as cameras and sensors — were obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Fox in October.
They show that between FY 2010 and FY 2020 inclusive, there were over 1.4 million gotaways, ranging from a low of 86,226 in FY 2011 to a high of 171,663 in FY 2013.
In FY 2020, there were 136,808 gotaways at the border. That number then rose to 387,398 in FY 2021, which coincided with the last months of the Trump administration and the first months of the Biden administration.
As the migrant numbers at the southern border rose to crisis levels, so did the number of gotaways — with numbers then skyrocketing to 606,131 in FY 2022 and 670,674 in FY 23.
This means that there were more gotaways in FY21-23 (1.6 million) than the decade of FY 2010 and FY 2020 (1.4 million).
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To reiterate: That’s substantially more gotaways in the past three fiscal years than in the entire preceding decade. The increase is attributed to both a substantial spike in the number of illegal aliens crossing the border and the fact that enhanced surveillance technology has enabled the authorities to better track those who manage to avoid Border Patrol. “
Further exacerbating the border crisis is the alarming mishandling of deportation cases. RedState’s Susie Moore noted that the Homeland Security Department (DHS) has seen over 200,000 deportation cases dismissed due to administrative and procedural errors.
Here’s what happened, according to a new report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), which bills itself as “your source for comprehensive, independent and nonpartisan information about federal enforcement, staffing and spending”:
Approximately 200,000 deportation cases have been thrown out by Immigration Judges since the start of the Biden administration because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hadn’t filed the required Notice to Appear (NTA) with the Court by the time of the scheduled hearing. Without a proper filing, the Court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case and the immigrants, often asylum seekers, lack a way to move their case forward.
How on earth is this possible? The report lays it out in detail, but to sum up, the DHS must file a Notice to Appear (NTA) to initiate a case with the immigration court, listing the reasons it believes an individual should be deported. For the immigration judge to have the requisite jurisdiction, DHS must file the NTA with the court.
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The rise in “gotaways” and the ineptitude shown by the White House in the handling of deportation cases have led to even more criticism of the Biden administration’s border policies. This is a serious issue, given that those who elude the authorities could pose a threat to public safety since they have not been properly vetted to ensure they do not have criminal backgrounds.
Unfortunately, these problems continue to persist under the Biden administration, which has done little to solve the problem. Meanwhile, cities and border towns are bearing the brunt of the crisis, struggling to keep up with the constant influx of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, which could make immigration a deciding issue in the upcoming presidential election.