(The Center Square) – In President Donald Trump’s first year in office, illegal border crossers in one year in Texas totaled nearly half of gotaways reported in previous years in Texas.
They also represent roughly 10% of illegal entries in Texas in 2022 and 2023, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data and gotaway data obtained by The Center Square.
In fiscal 2025, 259,878 illegal border crossers were apprehended in Texas, excluding gotaways, by Border Patrol and CBP officers, according to year-end CBP data. The fiscal year goes from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
Gotaways is the official CBP term for those who illegally enter between ports of entry to evade capture, don’t file immigration claims and don’t return to Mexico. CBP doesn’t publicly report this data. The Center Square obtained gotaway data from Border Patrol agents, reporting it each month. At least two million gotaways were reported during the Biden administration, The Center Square exclusively reported. The total, which excludes Office of Field Operations data, is expected to be much higher due to several factors.
Many gotaways are known to have criminal records, including some on the terrorist watchlist and Special Interest Aliens (SIAs). Many have previously been deported, law enforcement officers have told The Center Square. SIAs are “known or evaluated to possibly have a nexus to terrorism” and potentially pose "a national security risk to the United States,” according to the Department of Homeland Security. At least 73,000 SIAs were arrested during the Biden administration nationwide, The Center Square reported.
In fiscal years 2022 and 2023, illegal entries in Texas totaled 1.4 million, according to CBP data. Gotways totaled several hundred thousand each year, The Center Square reported. When combined, illegal entries in Texas totaled roughly two million each year at the height of the border crisis.
In fiscal 2023, Border Patrol agents reported nearly 450,000 known gotaways in Texas, The Center Square exclusively reported. That’s nearly double the illegal entries reported in Texas in fiscal 2025.
Texas also reported the most gotaways of the four southwest border states. Its minimum 449,691 gotaways in 2023 accounted for nearly 60% of the minimum 769,174 known gotaways reported by Border Patrol agents at the southwest border that year.
Historically, Border Patrol agents working in the Del Rio and Rio Grande Valley CBP sectors reported the greatest number of illegal border crossers and gotaways in Texas. But in fiscal 2023, El Paso topped the charts.
In the El Paso and Del Rio sectors, gotaways totaled nearly half of Border Patrol apprehensions in 2023, The Center Square reported.
El Paso Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 482,000 illegal border crossers and reported more than 210,000 gotaways, The Center Square reported.
Del Rio Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 400,000 illegal border crossers and reported more than 180,000 gotaways that year, The Center Square reported.
Big Bend Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended a record nearly 12,000 in a very remote region of Texas and reported more than 9,100 gotaways that year. These numbers had never been seen in that sector in Border Patrol history.
While illegal entries reached historic lows this year, gotaways are still illegally entering the U.S. in Texas.
Texas’ border security mission, Operation Lone Star, is still very much in effect. Texas Department of Public Safety OLS officers and OLS Task Force sheriffs continue to arrest gotaways, alleged human and drug smugglers and other violent criminals.
OLS DPS officers are making roughly 100 criminal arrests in Texas a week, “roughly the same as one year ago, as the criminal element crossing the border remains,” DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez told The Center Square.
They’ve also identified roughly 6,500 criminal foreign nationals with active felony warrants for a range of offenses, including murder, assault, sex crimes, human smuggling, drug smuggling, weapons and other crimes. Texas OLS created a Texas’ 10 Most Wanted Criminal Illegal Immigrants List, and officers continue to apprehend SIAs.
The SIAs they’ve apprehended are primarily men from Afghanistan, Egypt, the Congo, Mali, Syria, Turkey and other countries who would have “otherwise escaped into the interior of the U.S. had OLS officers not arrested them,” Olivarez said.
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