The number of people with criminal convictions caught entering the United States illegally per month so far this fiscal year has risen to a record high, data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show.
An average of 1,459 criminal illegal aliens per month have been arrested after crossing the U.S. border unlawfully since the current fiscal year began on Oct. 1, 2023, according to CBP data. This is the highest monthly tally of any year on record.
If the trend continues, when fiscal year 2024 ends in September, a record level of more than 17,000 criminals will have been caught crossing the border illegally. So far this fiscal year, that number amounts to 13,130.
By comparison, fiscal year 2023 saw an average of 1,272 arrests of criminal illegal immigrants per month, for a total of 15,267 arrests.
Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens recently revealed that 360 of the illegal immigrants with criminal convictions arrested so far in 2024 have gang affiliations.
“Individuals like these can pose a significant threat to public safety,” he wrote in a post on X. “We must be able to apprehend & identify them, so we can prosecute & remove them.”
While a little over half of the individuals on the CBP’s “criminal noncitizens” arrest list for 2024 so far have prior convictions for illegal entry and re-entry, significant numbers have been convicted of more serious crimes like assault (814), burglary (496), sexual offenses (168), and homicide (23).
Criminal records are based on searching “records checks of available law enforcement databases.” The crimes may have occurred in the United States or abroad, but excludes conduct not considered criminal by the United States.
This past weekend, border patrol agents caught seven previously convicted sex offenders at the southwest border, Chief Owens wrote in another post on X.
This year’s record-breaking monthly numbers don’t include gotaways—people who managed to evade capture to make their way into U.S. communities.
Two such gotaways are 22-year-old Johan Jose Martinez and 26-year-old Franklin Pena, both Venezuelan nationals charged with capital murder in the death of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, whose body was found in a creek in Houston on June 17.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson confirmed to The Epoch Times that the two suspects entered the country illegally at an unknown date and location, and managed to evade detection. It wasn’t until earlier this year that they were both taken into custody—and subsequently released with notices to appear before a judge for removal proceedings.
Mass Deportation
This comes as the issue of illegal immigration has surged to the top of voters’ concerns in an election year and amid growing support for mass deportation of illegal immigrants.
According to an early June CBS/YouGov poll, 62 percent of U.S. voters would support a national program to deport all illegal immigrants from the United States. That’s significantly higher than the 39 percent who expressed the same view in 2016, a presidential election year that saw then-presidential candidate Donald Trump run on a platform of curbing illegal immigration, in part by promising to build a border wall. In the run-up to this year’s presidential election, former President Trump has endorsed mass deportation measures of illegal immigrants.
Meanwhile, a recent Supreme Court ruling made it harder for illegal immigrants to fight their deportation orders in court.
President Joe Biden also recently launched a program that shields illegal immigrant adults who are married to U.S. citizens from deportation, and extended these protections to children with a parent married to a U.S. citizen.
Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was recently asked in an interview on CNN for his reaction on the sharp increase in the share of Americans who support mass deportation.
He responded by pointing to President Biden’s new program noting that the Biden administration holds in high regard the value of keeping families together, regardless of immigration status.
“It is about family unity,” Mr. Mayorkas said. “That is an ethic and a value of this country. And we will benefit significantly from it. We will keep families together. Families, including the undocumented spouses, who have contributed so much to this country in so many different ways.”
