New Mexico border area becoming free zone for cartels, says state senator
New Mexico State Sen. Steven McCutcheon (R), National Border Patrol Council VP Art Del Cueto, Chicago resident Cata Truss, and former acting ICE Director Ron Vitiello discuss record-breaking illegal immigration under President Biden.
Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have evaded Border Patrol so far this fiscal year, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources, with hundreds getting into the United States each day.
Sources told Fox that there have been 175,000 "known getaways," meaning illegal immigrants who have evaded Border Patrol agents but have been picked up by other forms of surveillance but not apprehended, since the fiscal year began in October.
That means there have been an average of nearly 800 gotaways each day at the border.
MASSIVE NUMBER OF MIGRANTS FROM THIS FOREIGN ADVERSARY ARE ILLEGALLY ENTERING US
This undated photo shows migrants moving through Mexico on their way to the U.S. border. (Auden Cabello/TikTok)
Officials have regularly expressed concern about the numbers crossing without being encountered, even though it is a relatively small number compared to the more than 1.3 million migrants encountered this fiscal year.
"That number is a large number, but what’s keeping me up at night is the 140,000 known gotaways," Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens told CBS News in March, when numbers were lower.
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Immigrants are photographed at a U.S. Border Patrol processing center after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on Dec. 7, 2023 in Lukeville, Arizona. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, officials have encountered more than 1,200 Chinese illegal immigrants in the first eight days of May, averaging more than 150 a day. The vast majority have been encountered in the San Diego Sector.
The San Diego Sector saw more than 200 encounters in two separate days last week. On Thursday, agents encountered 223 migrants, after encountering 262 on Wednesday.
BORDER PATROL SECTOR STOPS HUNDREDS OF CHINESE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN JUST TWO DAYS AS NUMBERS SOAR
Overall, across the border, numbers of Chinese nationals have increased dramatically since FY 2021. There were 1,970 encounters in FY 2022, over 24,000 in FY 2023 and so far there have been over 24,200 encounters this fiscal year.
Some Republicans have raised concern about the possibility of espionage from those coming across the border.
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Recently, House Republicans warned that the Chinese Communist Party "wants the chaos and devastation" that comes from fentanyl coming into the U.S. Illicit fentanyl is primarily made using Chinese precursors by Mexican cartels and then moved across the southern land border.
Last month, a Chinese illegal immigrant was detained in California after entering a Marine Corps base without authorization and ignoring orders to leave.
Fox News' Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
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