Non-Detained Illegal Immigrants Surpass 6 Million as Border Crisis Rages

Illegal immigrants pass through a gap in the U.S. border wall to await processing by Border Patrol agents in Jacumba, Calif., on Dec. 7, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

A new report from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reveals that the number of non-detained illegal immigrants inside the United States has exceeded 6 million, marking another milestone in the ongoing border crisis.

The ICE report for fiscal year 2023, released on Dec. 29, paints a mostly bleak picture of the growing problem of illegal immigration in the United States.

The report shows a staggering increase over the past few years in the number of illegal immigrants on the non-detained docket. This is the case management system or list of individuals facing immigration proceedings (including final orders of removal or pending removal proceedings) but not held in ICE detention.

This number has soared from 4.7 million in 2022 to 6.2 million in 2023—a jump of over 30 percent. By comparison, the number of illegal immigrants on the non-detained rolls was 3.26 million in 2020 and 3.6 million in 2021.

According to the report, the apprehension of individuals crossing the U.S.-Mexico border unlawfully is the main driver of the increase.

A group of more than 1,000 illegal immigrants wait in line near a U.S. Border Patrol field processing center after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Dec. 18, 2023. John Moore/Getty Images

Massive Influx

The number of detained illegal immigrants also rose, the report shows. This figure rose from 26,299 in 2022 to 36,845 in 2023.

Further, authorities deported over 142,000 illegal immigrants in 2023, nearly double from the year before.

While opponents of open borders may welcome an increase in this figure, it is a reflection of a massive increase in the sheer number of illegal immigrants entering the country in recent years. The number deported are also just a fraction of the 2 million known entries reported by Border Patrol along just the U.S. southern border in 2023.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) logged the busiest November on record last month, with encounters at the southern border totaling 242,418, according to its monthly report. This figure is higher than even the highest month seen under former President Donald Trump.

President Trump has repeatedly said he sees the influx of illegal immigrants as a national security crisis and a key issue and has vowed to impose tough border security measures the moment he gets into office—if he wins the 2024 race for the White House.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at the National Rifle Association Convention in Indianapolis, on April 14, 2023. Michael Conroy/AP

Republicans—and the former president—have blamed President Biden for the border crisis.

During his first 100 days in office, President Biden took dozens of executive actions related to immigration, including ordering a halt to the border wall.

In a recent interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, President Trump made a stark prediction about the problem of illegal immigration.

“We have prisoners coming in. We have mental patients coming in by the thousands. Really, by the millions, because you take a look, I believe that number will be 15 million people. Maybe more than that” by the time President Biden leaves office, he said.

The FBI recently expressed “great concern” that some people crossing the border illegally may pose a terror threat.

In fiscal year 2023, there were 169 people whose names appear on the terrorist watchlist who were arrested trying to cross the southern border, an all-time record.

While Republicans have long been critical of the Biden administration’s border policies, the president has also faced criticism from within his own political camp.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) recently warned that President Biden could lose support within his own party if he doesn’t find a way to process and deport illegal immigrants faster.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) has called for the southern border to be “closed down” amid the influx while denouncing fellow Democrats who downplay the crisis despite warnings that the open border poses a significant security threat.

“Our borders are a mess,” Mr. Manchin told Fox News in a recent interview.

The border crisis is increasingly becoming a political weight on President Biden, dragging down his approval ratings.

Illegal immigrants pass through a gap in the U.S. border wall to await processing by Border Patrol agents in Jacumba, Calif., on Dec. 7, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Terror Threat

CBP recently warned agents in an internal security memo to be on high alert after the Mexican military seized nearly a dozen improvised explosive devices (IED) near the border.

Also, a group of Republican senators who toured the border area in October said that some illegal border-crossers were caught carrying explosives that seemed designed for terror attacks.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has also sounded the alarm on the potential national security threat posed by bomb-carrying drones near the border.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers in November that, while the terrorism threat has been elevated through the whole of 2023, the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war “raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole other level.”

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), one of the four senators who traveled to the southern border at the end of October, told a press conference in Washington that the IEDs that were found by law enforcement agents along the border were the “size of cannonballs” and appeared to be “tailor-made for terrorism.”

President Trump recently remarked on his immediate priorities if his 2024 comeback bid for the White House succeeds.

“We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling,” the former president said during a recent Fox News town hall, during which he called President Biden’s anti-fossil-fuel policies bad for the country and vowed to encourage more domestic oil and gas production.