section_path: Profile and demographics/Illegal entry
section_name: Illegal entry
paragraph_text: Illegal entry
  
  There are an estimated half million illegal entries into the United States each year. The Pew Hispanic Center estimated that 6–7 million immigrants came to the United States via illegal entry (the rest entering via legal visas allowing a limited stay, but then not leaving when their visa period ended). Illegal border crossings declined considerably from 2000, when 71,000–220,000 migrants were apprehended each month, to 2018 when 20,000–40,000 migrants were apprehended. On October 31, 2023, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, saying that more than 600,000 people illegally made their way into the United States without being apprehended by border agents during the 2023 fiscal year.
  
  A common means of border crossing is to hire people smugglers to help them across the border. Those operating on the US–Mexico border are known informally as coyotajes (coyotes), and are often part of extensive criminal networks throughout Mexico. Criminal gangs smuggling illegal immigrants from China are known as snakeheads, and charge as much as US$70,000 per person, which immigrants often promise to pay with money they hope to earn in the United States.
  
  At the border, US Customs and Border Protection either takes migrants into custody or releases them into the country. The term "gotaway" is defined by the Department of Homeland Security as "a person who is not turned back or apprehended after making an illegal entry" along a US border. A "gotaway" is recorded when cameras or sensors detect migrants crossing the border, but no one is found, or agents are not available to respond. An unknown number of migrants also escape detection entirely.