Illegal migrant gotaways who evade arrest after crossing border dropped 93% during Trumps first month in office
The number of illegal migrant “gotaways” who slip past border agents has plummeted more than 90% under President Trump’s show of force since reclaiming the White House less than a month ago.Daily average gotaways — migrants who are detected crossing the border but elude apprehension — at the southern border dropped to just 132 at the beginning of February, down 93% from the average under former President Joe Biden, a Department of Homeland Security source told Fox News.“Gotaways” include people spotted by agents, caught on camera or sensors or detected in another away.Known gotaways reached 670,674 in FY 2023 — the most recent year available — or more than 1,800 per day, according to a Freedom of Information Act request obtained by Fox News.
While the actual number of successful border crossers is certainly higher, the drop shows that Trump’s effort to seal the border and deport illegal immigrants is working, a Department of Homeland Security source told The Post.“It’s amazing how the previous president said he didn’t have the ability to do something but the ‘orange bad man’ comes in and suddenly we are heading toward record lows,” the source said.Another border patrol source told The Post the gotaway numbers — which DHS normally does not reveal to the public — are a breath of fresh air for discouraged law enforcement.“It’s a great feeling going to work knowing that we can actually enforce the law and that anyone caught is sent back to their country,” the agent said.Border gotaways began to climb when Biden took office in 2021, skyrocketing from around 136,000 in FY 2020 to over 387,000 in FY 2021 — a 65% jump.Across the board, immigration enforcement statistics have improved in the first month of Trump’s presidency.In the last week of the Biden administration — Jan.
20-26 — authorities encountered more than 20,000 migrants at the southern border, according to numbers obtained by Fox News.After Trump’s first week...