(The Center Square) – Apprehensions of illegal border crossers dropped by 95% in New Mexico under the Trump administration from their record high during the Biden administration. At the same time, arrests of foreign terrorist organization members and prosecutions of border crimes skyrocketed in New Mexico.
Apprehensions of illegal border crossers this year represent a fraction of the gotaways who illegally entered during the Biden administration, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data and gotaway data obtained by The Center Square.
In fiscal year 2025, 36,116 illegal border crossers were apprehended in New Mexico, excluding gotaways. The fiscal year goes from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
That’s down from 121,518 reported in fiscal 2024, 170,852 in fiscal 2023 and 143,857 in fiscal 2022, according to CBP data. Each year broke records but 2023 was the highest reported in New Mexico in U.S. history.
This year’s total represents an 80% drop from the record high of 2023.
By individual month, the 745 apprehended this August represent a 95% drop from the record high 14,429 apprehended in August 2022, according to the data.
In 2022, illegal entries skyrocketed in the CBP El Paso Sector, which includes all of New Mexico. In November 2022 alone, more than 53,500 illegal border crossers and 24,000 gotaways were reported, the majority in New Mexico, The Center Square reported. At the time, El Paso’s Democratic mayor declared a state of emergency and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott deployed 400 National Guard troops to the Texas-New Mexico-Mexico border.
Meanwhile, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and federal partners targeted stash houses, hostage taking, smuggling and trafficking operations in New Mexico, The Center Square reported.
By early 2023, gotaways totaled nearly 17,000 in just two months in the El Paso Sector, with the majority reported in New Mexico, The Center Square reported.
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 those on the terrorist watchlist, The Center Square reported.
Illegal entries in New Mexico reached their peak in 2023 as Texas border security efforts expanded through Abbott’s Operation Lone Star led by Texas’ Border Czar Mike Banks, The Center Square reported. Banks is now the chief of Border Patrol. The Santa Teresa, NM, CBP station was the busiest in the El Paso Sector, The Center Square reported.
By 2024, Texas OLS officers erected barriers to prevent illegal entry from Mexico and New Mexico after New Mexico was Texas’ only neighbor that refused to participate in OLS, The Center Square reported.
By September 2024, after Abbott and Banks’ efforts expanded, the majority of illegal entries in the El Paso Sector were in New Mexico, 87%. Law enforcement was also finding that the majority of illegal border crossers apprehended in the El Paso region of Texas had come from New Mexico after illegally entering from Mexico, The Center Square reported.
The situation was so bad that Republican lawmakers from New Mexico came to Texas to learn how they could replicate OLS efforts. Banks said at the time, “Our neighbors and states across the country are turning to Texas for guidance and direction on the most effective ways to secure the border.”
After new Trump administration policies were implemented under Banks, illegal entries in New Mexico plummeted to record lows. At the height of the border crisis, apprehensions totaled more than 25,000 in New Mexico in March 2023. This March, they totaled 1,100 and reached a record low of 719 in July, according to CBP data excluding gotaways.
Apprehensions of suspected terrorists also increased, including members of the Venezuelan transnational criminal organization Tren de Aragua operating in New Mexico.
Prosecutions also increased with the U.S. Attorney for New Mexico prosecuting hundreds each week for border crimes, a record for the district.
This month, 11 alleged TdA members were indicted in New Mexico, accused of kidnapping, brutally interrogating and strangling to death a man in Albuquerque and burying his body in a remote desert grave, The Center Square reported.
In the last two weeks, 96 were charged with illegal reentry after deportation, six with alien smuggling and 112 with illegal entry, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Another 54 were charged with illegal entry, including illegally entering a military space after a National Defense Area was established in New Mexico by the Department of War.
In addition to hiring new Border Patrol and CBP agents in New Mexico, the Trump administration awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in new contracts to expand border wall construction and technology in New Mexico, The Center Square reported.
