Illegal immigrants with ‘serious criminal histories’ are trying to cross border daily: Border Patrol chief

Dozens of illegal immigrants with "serious criminal histories" are being stopped by Border Patrol agents on a daily basis trying to cross the southern border, the top official for the law enforcement agency said on Thursday.

Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said that on average this year, agents have arrested more than 47 people a day with "serious criminal histories."

He made the statement as he announced that agents had stopped two illegal immigrants, one who had a murder charge and one who was a member of a drug trafficking organization with an active warrant.

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Earlier this week, he announced that over the weekend, agents had stopped illegal immigrants with criminal histories including aggravated sexual assault of a child, lewd acts with a child, rape and burglary, assault with a weapon and domestic violence.

For FY 23, there were 12,267 "criminal noncitizens" encountered, compared to 12,028 in FY 2022, 10,763 in FY22 and 2,438 in FY20.

While individuals with serious criminal histories are being apprehended, figures do not include those who have evaded Border Patrol agents, who are frequently overwhelmed by the historic numbers they are seeing at the southern border.

Sources confirmed to Fox News this week that there have been more than 23,000 "known gotaways" since the new fiscal year began on October 1. That means more than 1,000 individuals per day were seen or detected by Border Patrol agents but not apprehended this month. 

CBP released its official numbers for September on Saturday, showing new historic highs at the border.

There were 269,735 migrant encounters in September, of which 218,763 were persons entering illegally. That brings the yearly total for migrants at the southern border for FY 23 to 2.48 million, higher than the 2.38 million in FY 22 and 1.73 million in FY 21. There were just 458,088 encounters in FY 2020.

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Meanwhile, there were 18 encounters of people on the terror watch list between ports of entry at the southern border, taking the total for FY 23 up to 169 — a new record and more than the last six fiscal years combined.

Republicans have blamed the Biden administration’s policies for the surge at the border, including reduced interior enforcement and a greater use of "catch-and-release." The administration has said that Congress needs to pass immigration reform and provide more funding, recently requesting an additional $14 billion in an emergency supplemental funding request for border operations. 

A fact sheet put out by the White House says that the Biden administration’s strategy is "focused on enforcement, deterrence and diplomacy" that includes a massive expansion of "lawful pathways" into the U.S.

Fox News' Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.