America's Talking - Illegal Border Crossers So Far This Year Outnumber the Population of 8 States

Episode Date: June 17, 2023

At least 1.2 million people have been apprehended or reported evading capture at the southern border in the first five months of this year, according to data obtained and analyzed by The Center Square. The estimate is based on official apprehension data reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection as well as gotaway data. A Border Patrol agent provides this data exclusively to The Center Square on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Gotaways are those who illegally enter the U.S. and intentionally seek to evade capture. Border Patrol agents report those who have illegally entered and evaded capture based on several factors. CBP doesn’t publicly report gotaway data. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I am Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. Joining me again today, as he does every week, is the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief Casey, Casey, the border crisis continues to be a big national story. This week, our border correspondent, Bethany Blankly received data from May about illegal border crossings, those who were apprehended and those who evaded capture. who the federal government classifies as godawaves. And so far this year, when you add May's numbers to the list, at least 1.2 million people have either been apprehended or reported a evading capture at the southern border. And when you take a look at that data and compare it to, like, for example, U.S. state populations, that 1.2 million figure is bigger than the population of eight U.S. states. What do you make of it? It's kind of incredible. I mean, such large numbers that

it's hard to even comprehend what that would do to a state, to a city. I think, you know, we've talked a lot about how some of these border communities are absolutely overwhelmed. They can't, you know, take care of all the people are coming in. There's just a flood. Places like El Paso have declared a state of emergency. And so that's the other problem is not only is the population of eight U.S. states come in just this year alone, but they're all coming in through the same few places for the most part, right? So there's really high traffic areas. And the other thing is because of changes the Biden administration has made, Almost none of these people will be deported.

And I think at this point, the word is out and they know that. The Biden administration really is just not deporting anyone unless they have a criminal record. This is a pretty serious criminal record. This is kind of a way through executive action. Biden has decided to kind of circumvent some of the laws on it, on the immigration laws on the books for, you know, I guess his ideological or political way of thinking about immigration and its role in American society. So the numbers are going up. So what does that mean? I mean, if we keep doing this at this record rate, and this is not something that's just popular.

up this year, right? I mean, these numbers have been high for a long time, but even since Biden took office, they've absolutely soared. They've dropped a little bit, or it seems that they've dropped a little bit in the very last few weeks, but even then, they're still so much higher than they've been, you know, just like 10 years ago or something. So the numbers are rising, the enforcement mechanisms that the U.S. used to rely on to deport and remove people are no longer in place. And so I think there's kind of just a big open for business sign on the southern border. I think this is an interesting tidbit, so I'll just read off the names of the states who have fewer people living in them than those who have illegally crossed the border since January 1st. Montana, with 1.14 million people, fewer than the 1.2 million that have illegally crossed the border this year alone.

Rhode Island, 1.1 million people. Delaware, 1 million people. South Dakota, 923,000 people. North Dakota, 780,000 people. Alaska, 732,000. Vermont. 647 and Wyoming 583. So essentially just from the people illegally crossing the border alone, you could double the population of Montana just by sending them up to that state. Just as concerning, I guess from my standpoint, is the number of gotaways. They're averaging nearly 60,000 per month. These are the people who don't try to turn themselves into federal authorities and claim asylum to legally try to gain entry into the U.S. These are the people who go between ports of entry, cross the Rio Grande, for example,

try to get into the U.S. undetected. They're averaging $60,000 a month, and the federal government doesn't know who these people are or where they are. We do know well over 100 folks on the terrorist watch list have been apprehended coming into the country, but we don't know how many people on the terrorist watch list evaded capture and part of these gotaway,

figures. Yeah, that's right. I mean, all this data, we talk about how serious it is, but we actually don't even know what the real data is, which is basically what you said, which is how can we know who got into the country without us even seeing them get in or getting away? It's, you know, the system is set up currently to invite them in. So even you might say, oh, they got away. We almost caught them. Well, not really. Because even if you catch someone, you, you know, usually they will tell them, okay, show up for this court date to process your request or whatever. And then they just don't show for the court date and then we never see them again. Well, we've reported at the Center Square that just because of the massive influx of people and the understaffed Department of Homeland Security and

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Services, that many of those resources are tied up processing these people. And we've reported at the CenterSquare.com that they're releasing many of these people in the U.S. with court dates, those immigration court dates that you just mentioned, that are four and five years in the future. If you're, for example, if you're crossing the country, you're crossing the border into the U.S., maybe don't speak much English, you're apprehended. They give you a court date that's four years from now. You think that person's showing up in court four years?

Four years. Yeah, I mean, and the sad thing is, I mean, I think people have a lot of compassion, honestly, for those trying to come here. When I was in South America earlier this year, I mean, I talked to a lot of people, and their main goal was to get to the United States. It was kind of eye-opening for me to just, you know, be not in Mexico, but in South America and having people say this to me. And so I think people have compassion. But the problem is the system right now is set up where it rewards those who break the law

and it punishes those who try to do it illegally. If you do it legally, you have to link the process. You're going to have to wait forever. But if you do it illegally, you're just let in right away. And there's no punishment and you're not going to get deported. And great, great for you. You know, I mean, so the system, it's not only that it lets a lot of people in it, it punishes people trying to do it the right way. and it fast-tracks it for those willing to break the law. Let me also be clear. We talk about people entering the United States illegally from Mexico. These aren't just Mexican residents.

In fact, very few of them are. Guatemala, Colombia. Exactly. All of Latin America, South America, but even countries like China, they're arresting folks who are Chinese nationals trying to enter the U.S. illegally. I don't have the exact number in front of me. But they're coming from like more than 100. 150 countries across the globe. Of course, China is probably the biggest security threat to the United

States. How do we know who many of these Chinese are? I'm sure they're part of the got-of-way numbers, $60,000 a month. You've got to think people from all different nations are among those stats. We don't know who they are. We don't know where they are. That's got to be a huge national security concern. I mean, definitely, if you fly into the U.S., you have to go through metalode sector, show your passport, walk through customs to have your bags looked at. But you and your buddies, and regardless to what lists they're on, can bring whatever they want across the border. And of course, we know that's the main reason, the main source of the fentanyl crisis is because there is a power vacuum at the border and the U.S. government doesn't really have it under control. There is a power vacuum.

So the cartels have it under control. And they make billions of dollars bringing fentanyl in one way or another. And they're pretty sophisticated about it. When there's billions of dollars to be made, you can get pretty sophisticated. So, and now, you know, our overdose rates in the U.S. are, you know, off-time highs because of that. People who think they're taking recreational drugs are taking lethal drugs because they've been laced with fentanyl. So, I mean, we could go on and on about how much of a danger this is and risk it is. And what we haven't talked about so far, and we probably won't because most people don't know is what is on the horizon to actually fix it.

And because right now it seems like nothing. Exactly. Nothing. Congress isn't working on anything that there'll be an agreement. on anyway, President Biden and his administration seem like they're content with what's going on, with the chaos that's going on right now, denying that there's even, denying that the borders are open to so many people. Anyway, as you said, Casey, we could go on and on. This is a story that's not going anywhere, but we are out of time. Listeners can keep up with the ongoing border crisis story at the center square.com. For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McKeel. Thank you for listening.

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