The number of illegal immigrants that have crossed into the United States during the first quarter of fiscal year 2023 (FY begins Oct. 1) is larger than most big American cities, according to a new report.
About “844,000 migrants were either apprehended after crossing the southwest border or were classified as ‘got-aways’ during the first quarter” of the fiscal year, Breitbart News reported, citing unofficial numbers from the U.S. Border Patrol.
“The number represents the reported apprehension of 631,000 migrants and an additional 212,000 migrants classified as known got-aways,” the report continued.
The top 117 U.S. cities have a population of 212,000 and above, but that figure is higher than many other notable American cities like Rochester, N.Y,; Little Rock, Ark.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Tallahassee, Fla., Montgomery, Ala.; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and Eugene, Ore., to name a few.
Breitbart News further explained:
Gotaways are an estimate by Border Patrol officials of migrants that are either seen and not apprehended or are counted by other means including technology and tracking. These are migrants who illegally cross the border with no intention of surrendering to law enforcement to claim asylum, officials previously told Breitbart.
The El Paso Sector alone accounted for approximately 32,000 of these got-aways just in December. Agents in the El Paso Sector apprehended nearly 56,000 migrants in December. This brings the total of known border crossings to 88,000 for the month.
But this isn’t the only insult to American taxpayers thanks to Joe Biden’s refusal — refusal — to enforce current immigration and border security laws that are on the books like Donald Trump did. The most recently passed $1.7 trillion “omnibus” spending bill Congress passed contains a shocking $785 million to transport, feed, and house illegal migrants. (Imagine how many miles of highway that would finance or electric lines it would replace or outdated water and sewage systems it would upgrade.)
“Included in that bill is the transfer of $800 million from CBP to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), $785 million of which will go ‘to support sheltering and related activities provided by non-Federal entities, including facility improvements and construction, in support of relieving overcrowding in short-term holding facilities,’” noted Center for Immigration Studies senior fellow Andrew Arthur last week. “Oh, and an additional $1.6 million for CBP ‘suicide prevention and wellness activities.’ Congress needs to investigate.”
“It should come as no surprise that Biden’s border fiasco has taken a toll on CBP employees at the Southwest border. Morale is at all-time lows and the administration doesn’t seem to care much,” Arthur continued. “As of late November, 14 CBP employees committed suicide in 2022, the last three of whom were Border Patrol agents at the Southwest border who took their lives less than two weeks apart. I’m not saying that the Biden-created disaster at the border either led to or precipitated those deaths. Having been a former congressional oversight staffer, however, I would like to know.”
The Federation for American Immigration Reform, meanwhile, noted that the massive amount of money earmarked for migrants in the spending bill actually encourages more illegal immigration (which, of course, is the point).
“The final spending package approved by a Congress on their way out the door leaves little doubt that chaos at the border is the policy of the Democratic Party today and that their goal is to create even more of it,” said Dan Stein, president of FAIR. “Only a party that affirmatively wants open borders – regardless of the fiscal, security, and humanitarian costs – would let the one remaining policy that allows for the expedited removal of even some illegal migrants lapse, and deliberately tie the hands of our border enforcement agency.
“Let’s be clear, the president can restore operational control of the border simply by enforcing laws that are already on the books – many of which he voted for as a senator. Instead, he and his party continue to deflect blame by claiming they inherited a broken system. The truth is they deliberately broke it themselves and are standing in the way of efforts to fix it,” he continued.
“Rather than do anything to regain control of our borders, the omnibus is focused entirely on processing illegal aliens as quickly as possible and transporting them to already overwhelmed communities all across the United States. This massive spending bill effectively turns CBP into a federally administered travel agency for illegal aliens and saddles state and local governments with the costs of education, health care, housing and other basic needs for the endless flow of illegal aliens the Biden administration is waiving into the country,” he concluded.