(The Center Square) – U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported there were 211,401 foreign nationals apprehended at the southwest border in April, the second-highest total in 22 years.
These numbers don’t include gotaways, however, those who agents report as known to have evaded capture after they entered the U.S. illegally. In April, gotaways totaled at least 73,463, with the greatest numbers reported in the El Paso and Tucson sectors.
When gotaway data is included, April’s numbers total nearly 285,000, and greater than all other months this year.
CBP said overall encounters in April were up 10% from March. The majority of border crossers, 182,114, were apprehended between ports of entry, up 12% from March. Among them were 5% more single adults and 28% more family units.
Since Jan. 12 through the end of April, over 79,000 foreign nationals scheduled appointments through the CBP One mobile app, CBP said; the majority were from Mexico, Venezuela and Haiti.
In April, CBP also processed and released into the U.S. more than 22,000 foreign nationals at ports of entry as exceptions to the public health authority Title 42 using the CBP One app.
Every month, The Center Square obtains unreported preliminary data from a Border Patrol agent that includes gotaway and other data. The agent provides the information on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation; it only includes Border Patrol data and excludes Office of Field Operations data – meaning the numbers are higher than reported.
The Rio Grande Valley gotaway data appears to be incomplete, the agent says, because it’s significantly lower than previous months while at the same time the region has been hit hard with groups of thousands of Venezuelans and Haitians attempting to enter at a time and ongoing surges of people continuing.
Less gotaways reported indicates that with fewer agents in the field, fewer people evading capture are being tracked or reported, meaning the number of people who illegally entered between ports of entry is expected to be significantly higher and unknown.
The El Paso Sector again led all sectors with the greatest number of apprehensions, followed by the RGV and Del Rio sectors.
As of May 1, the preliminary data for April in nine southwest border sectors include:
BIG BEND SECTOR
Apps- 1,430
TBs- 38
Gotaways Border Zone (known/recorded)- 753
Unclassifiable Detection- 0
Gotaways Interior Zone- 237
No Violations- 32
Deceased- 0
Outstanding- 53
DEL RIO SECTOR
Apps- 21,950
TBs- 204
Gotaways Border Zone (known/recorded)- 10,659
Unclassifiable Detection- 64
Gotaways Interior Zone- 3,077
No Violations- 173
Deceased- 10
Outstanding- 672
EL CENTRO SECTOR
Apps- 4,881
TBs- 727
Gotaways Border Zone (known/recorded)- 348
Unclassifiable Detection- 0
Gotaways Interior Zone- 24
No Violations- 9
Deceased- 1
Outstanding- 23
EL PASO SECTOR
Apps- 42,493
TBs- 6,669
Gotaways Border Zone (known/recorded)- 22,335
Unclassifiable Detection- 2
Gotaways Interior Zone- 371
No Violations- 33
Deceased- 3
Outstanding- 81
LAREDO SECTOR
Apps- 5,878
TBs- 2,106
Gotaways Border Zone (known/recorded)- 1,849
Unclassifiable Detection- 6
Gotaways Interior Zone- 582
No Violations- 229
Deceased- 3
Outstanding- 8
RGV SECTOR
Apps- 38,200
TBs- 3,034
Gotaways Border Zone (known/recorded)- 1,843
Unclassifiable Detection- 99
Gotaways Interior Zone- 976
No Violations- 123
Deceased- 9
Outstanding- 10
SAN DIEGO SECTOR
Apps- 25,575
TBs- 191
Gotaways Border Zone (known/recorded)- 3,847
Unclassifiable Detection- 0
Gotaways Interior Zone- 3,882
No Violations- 10
Deceased- 0
Outstanding- 1,609
TUCSON SECTOR
Apps- 36,375
TBs- 530
Gotaways Border Zone (known/recorded)- 14,237
Unclassifiable Detection- 137
Gotaways Interior Zone- 4,291
No Violations- 128
Deceased- 1
Outstanding- 1,690
YUMA SECTOR
Apps- 14,630
TBs- 122
Gotaways Border Zone (known/recorded)- 966
Unclassifiable Detection- 28
Gotaways Interior Zone- 53
No Violations- 9
Deceased- 0
Outstanding- 345
Apprehensions refer to those who illegally enter the U.S. and surrender or are caught. Turnbacks refer to those who illegally enter but return to Mexico. The gotaway data reflects where foreign nationals are detected illegally entering the U.S., at the Mexican border or farther north.
Unclassifiable detection isn’t part of 6 U.S. Code, which specifies how encounters are to be reported. This, and a now deleted category of “no arrests,” were used as a way to lower the number of gotaways being reported, the Border Patrol agent told The Center Square.
“No arrests” meant someone “was detected in a non-border zone and their presence didn’t affect Got-Away statistics,” according to the official internal tracking system used by agents to record data. “Unclassifiable detection” means the same thing, but the agents couldn’t determine citizenship. No-violations are individuals “deemed to have committed no infraction and don’t affect Got-Away statistics,” according to the tracking system.
No-violations and unclassifiable detection should be categorized as gotaways, the Border Patrol agent explained, assuming all non-arrests were of non-citizens. However, each sector also determines unclassified detection differently, the agent added, so how the numbers are categorized aren’t uniform. If these two categories were counted as gotaways, the total gotaway number for April would be closer to 74,545.
However, these numbers still don’t tell the whole story, the agent and others have explained to The Center Square, because they don’t include unknown and unrecorded gotaways. Not all gotaways are recorded because not all are identified, meaning the number of those illegally entering the U.S. is expected to be much greater than reported.
This article First appeared in the center square