what percent of people crossing the border get caught
Putting together all the evidence, what they found is that U.S. authorities are catching somewhere between 40 percent and 55 percent of the people who try to cross the border illegally. Thatâs more than in the past, when the Border Patrol had less manpower, but itâs still just somewhere around half, or even less.
To that 40 percent to 55 percent who are apprehended, DHS adds another number referred to as âturnbacks.â Those are people who try to enter illegally, make some progress, and then retreat back into Mexico. There are estimates that the turnback rate across the whole border is about 23 percent. Some border experts put those two numbers together â apprehensions and turnbacks â and come up with what is called an overall effectiveness rate. If the apprehension rate is, say, 47 percent, and the turnbacks are 23 percent, then that would be a 70 percent effectiveness rate.