According to a source within U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol records show the running average for known got-aways nationwide dropped to fewer than 40 per day during the first two weeks of September. The drop is a 98.5 percent reduction from record-breaking daily peaks of more than 2,000 per day set during the Biden Border Crisis in 2023.
The report reviewed exclusively by Breitbart Texas showed the agency recorded fewer than 550 known got-aways over a fourteen-day period during the first weeks of September. A Breitbart Texas report in April 2023 showed more than 400,000 illegal aliens eluded apprehension during the first six months of that fiscal year, a daily average of more than 2,200 got-aways.
The Border Patrol got-away count comes from recording known visual sightings of illegal aliens who are not apprehended. Sightings may come from agents on routine patrol, analysis of images captured by stationary game cameras, manned and unmanned aerial assets, or reports by third-party individuals who observed the incursion. The Border Patrol continues to use sign-cutting, a tactic that involves looking for disturbances on the ground to detect signs of human incursions at the border, and when necessary, identify got-aways as well.
The reduction in border crossings and known got-aways has contributed to a noticeable change in the border environment at some of the once-busiest crossing points along the southwest border during the Biden administration’s border crisis. Breitbart Texas spoke to Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe, whose deputies routinely encountered illegal alien smuggling loads on rural roads and highways traversing his county at the height of the border crisis.
Coe told Breitbart Texas that the change is visible on local ranches, and reports of illegal aliens crossing private property have dropped significantly. “Our deputies have only encountered two smuggling cases on our roadways since January. It’s an unbelievable change, and one we’re happy with,” the sheriff emphasized.
Coe’s deputies routinely found themselves involved in high-speed pursuits that at times ended in extensive property damage and even loss of life. In one incident, four illegal aliens died in a rollover crash after being ejected from the vehicle they were being transported in. The accident occurred just eight miles outside Brackettville, in Kinney County, in December 2022.
In Eagle Pass, Texas, a small border town that became the epicenter of the border crisis in late 2023, has also undergone a major change after illegal border crossings plunged during the second term of the Trump presidency. Breitbart Texas spoke to Beto Garza, the city’s Assistant Chief of Police, who says the conditions in the border city have changed tremendously. According to Garza, his officers still work to assist in the border security mission under Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, but the apprehension of illegal aliens by his officers now involves an occasional handful of encounters.
Garza cites the overwhelming number of law enforcement officers in the small border town as the reason for the change. “There are Border Patrol agents on patrol everywhere, and the Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol troopers are out in large numbers under Operation Lone Star as well,” Chief Garza told Breitbart Texas, adding, “Practically everywhere you look, there are law enforcement officers on patrol.”
Other border regions outside Texas are also seeing changes. In Douglas, Arizona, one CBP source told Breitbart Texas that Border Patrol agents only see small groups of illegal aliens crossing through the desert region where groups of more than 100 were routinely encountered crossing the border near the city at the peak of the border crisis.
The source said cartel smugglers’ tactics have also changed. “They recently resorted to cutting a lock on a flood gate just one week ago and attempted to drive multiple vehicles into the United States fully loaded with illegal aliens. The entry was detected as it happened, and every vehicle that attempted to enter was disabled or turned back to Mexico by Border Patrol agents and local law enforcement partners,” the source told Breitbart.
The tactic, according to the source, is a sign that the human traffickers operating in the region are becoming desperate, as crossing the border has become more difficult after strict border security policy changes enacted by the Trump administration took effect. According to the Department of Homeland Security, there have been zero illegal aliens released to pursue asylum at the southwest border during the last 16 months.
Those attempting to enter the United States illegally are also finding that a more robust Border Patrol is securing the border between ports of entry. As reported by Breitbart Texas, in late June, CBP announced that the United States Border Patrol had reached the historic milestone of 21,271 agents serving on the front lines of the nation’s borders.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Before his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.