Josh Denmark | Photographer
By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square
Border Patrol agents apprehended 232,628 people entering the southwestern border illegally in May, according to preliminary U.S. Border Patrol data as of June 3. That’s up from 211,972 people in April, also according to preliminary data.
When U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced its official total for April, it reported that federal agents apprehended 234,088 people entering the U.S. illegally, the greatest number in a single month in recorded U.S. history.
Official May numbers are expected to be even higher.
The Center Square obtained the preliminary data from a Border Patrol officer at the southern border in Texas. It excludes figures from the Office of Field Operations, which will likely make the numbers higher.
It also includes got-away estimates, which aren’t publicly published in the monthly enforcement reports issued by CBP.
A minimum of 61,609 known and identified “got-aways” were reported in May, according to the preliminary BP data. Got-aways are those who enter the U.S. illegally and evade capture. That’s up from 58,000 in April as The Center Square previously reported. However, this number is anticipated to be much higher, based on how data is recorded.
The BP officer, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, also told The Center Square that got-away numbers are being deleted from the system or labeled as something else to make it seem like there are fewer.
The southern border sectors that saw the most traffic last month, as in nearly all months, were in Texas in the Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio sectors.
The numbers are broken down by BP sector and categories, including apprehensions, turnbacks, non-violations, outstanding, no-arrests, got aways (known/recorded), and deceased.
Apprehensions include those in the U.S. illegally who surrender or are caught by BP officers. Turnbacks include those who entered illegally but returned to Mexico.
The categories of “no arrests” and “unresolved detection” aren’t part of 6 U.S. Code, which classifies how encounters are to be reported. These categories are used as a way to lower the number of got-aways being reported, the BP officer says.
No arrests mean someone “was detected in a non-border zone and their presence didn’t affect Got-Away statistics,” according to the official internal tracking system definition used by agents to record data. “Unresolved detection” means the same thing, but the officers, for a range of reasons, couldn’t determine citizenship.
Non-violations are “deemed to have committed no infraction and don’t affect Got-Away statistics,” according to the tracking system definition.
The categories of non-violations, no arrests, and unresolved detection should actually be categorized as got-aways, the BP officer says, assuming all non-arrests were of non-citizens.
Preliminary data in other sectors show more than 1,600 people were apprehended in May, with Miami apprehending the most.
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