Border Patrol agents last month apprehended nearly 210,000 illegal migrants at the southern border while a historic number of migrants are known to have "gotaway" before they could be apprehended, according to data from the nonprofit Federation for American Immigration Reform.
The Department of Homeland Security in October also counted 86,796 known gotaways, which are migrants who were seen crossing but unable to be stopped, according to a source in the agency on Saturday. Last month's gotaway numbers are believed to be the highest ever recorded, while the number of encounters is the highest recorded for any October.
"Border Patrol agents believe terrorism suspects, criminals and other high-value targets are among those sneaking through," FAIR tweeted.
Customs and Border Patrol agents reported encountering more than 2.7 million migrants nationwide, mostly along the southern border, in fiscal year 2022.
In September, the last month the agency published data about, agents encountered more than a quarter of a million illegal migrants.
