A minimum of 1,525,210 foreign nationals illegally crossed the Southwest U.S. border in fiscal year 2024, according to preliminary data obtained exclusively by The Center Square from a Border Patrol agent. The agent requested anonymity due to concerns of reprisal.
The reported figure does not include Office of Field Operations data, gotaways (those who entered and evaded capture), or apprehensions along the northern border.
This suggests the total number of illegal crossings could be significantly higher.
Additionally, the data excludes the 1.3 million inadmissible individuals released into the U.S. through two parole programs created by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
House Republicans have identified over 12 of these programs as illegal and impeached Mayorkas in February. Multiple state attorneys general have also filed lawsuits against the programs, arguing they violate federal law, while federal judges have ruled some of them illegal.
Despite Texas accounting for nearly 65% of the U.S.-Mexico border, preliminary data shows that only 35% of the total illegal border crosser apprehensions occurred in the state in FY24, amounting to 530,640 apprehensions.
In comparison, three Democratic-led western border states — New Mexico, Arizona, and California — reported a combined 994,570 apprehensions, indicating a westward shift of illegal crossings.
The shift is attributed to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star (OLS), which has bolstered border security measures, including the construction of barriers along the Texas-New Mexico border, pushing illegal activity further west.
In Arizona, Border Patrol agents reported 515,201 illegal border crossers, most of whom were apprehended in the Tucson Sector (461,685), which covers 262 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. Yuma, another Arizona sector, reported over 53,500 apprehensions.
California’s two border sectors, San Diego and El Centro, recorded a combined 342,348 apprehensions, with nearly 322,000 reported in the San Diego sector alone.
Meanwhile, in New Mexico’s El Paso Sector, which includes all of New Mexico and two western Texas counties, Border Patrol agents apprehended 137,021 illegal crossers.
The Biden administration has claimed a 60% reduction in illegal border crossings between ports of entry.
However, experts and critics argue that the administration has merely shifted the influx to legal ports of entry, increasing the volume of people entering through these channels.
Former acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) chief Mark Morgan and U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) have criticized these strategies as a way to obscure the scale of the border crisis.
Green stated, “The Biden-Harris administration is continuously misleading the American people. Between the unlawful CBP One and CHNV mass-parole programs alone, the Biden-Harris administration has released at least 1.3 million otherwise-inadmissible aliens into the interior, with insufficient vetting.”
He further alleged that these programs aim to disguise the crisis by facilitating illegal entries at ports of entry and claiming them as “legal pathways.”
Morgan echoed these sentiments, accusing the administration of a “government-sponsored shell game” to hide the real numbers.
“They haven’t stopped the flow of illegal migration at all, but rather they’ve simply diverted it from in-between the ports of entry to the ports of entry themselves,” Morgan said. He highlighted that while the administration boasts of a 60% reduction in crossings between ports of entry, the flow at ports of entry has surged by 220%.
The overall number of illegal entries during the Biden-Harris administration has reached nearly 14 million when accounting for reported apprehensions, gotaways, parole programs, and other channels, according to The Center Square’s analysis.
Official data for fiscal year 2024 is expected to be released later this month, potentially shedding further light on the scale of illegal border crossings and the administration’s handling of the situation.