Border Patrol agents apprehended a record 851,000 people during the fiscal year 2019, which ran between October 1, 2018 and September 30, 2019.

My former employer The Washington Examiner reported on exclusively obtained federal data showing that the number of apprehensions included 132,000 arrests in May, which was another record. In September, 40,000 people were arrested illegally crossing into Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas.

“The 851,000 arrested at the southern border does not include the number of people who approached ports of entry, or border crossings, to claim asylum or pass through but were turned away,” the outlet reported. “U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Homeland Security agency that oversees these figures, is expected to release this and related data in a few weeks.”

The numbers provided to the Examiner also don’t include the number of people who cross illegally but then claim asylum once taken into custody.

In addition to the 851,000 who entered the country illegally, another 263,000 entered via ports manned by the Office of Field Operations, a department within Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).

“These numbers do not include additional arrests and denied port crossers at the U.S.-Canada border and along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, nor does it include the September figure for those encountered at the ports,” the Examiner reported.

Of those who entered the country illegally along the southern border, 250,000 were from Guatemala and another 250,000 were from Honduras.

The data, as reported by the Examiner, showed that more families entered the country illegally than in previous years, although it is unclear whether these numbers reflect proven family units or traffickers posing as family members. Just four years ago, fewer than 80,000 people apprehended were caught with a family member. In 2019, that number was more than 450,000, showing that loopholes allowing family members to enter the country have created an incentive for those crossing illegally.

The Epoch Times added that President Donald Trump recently praised new sections of the wall along the southern border during a trip to San Diego’s Otay Mesa area.

“It was like a sheet metal, and people would just knock it over like just routinely,” Trump said of the old border wall, according to The Associated Press. “When the wall is built, it will be virtually impossible to come over illegally, and then we’re able to take border control and put them at points of entry.”

He also thanked the Mexican government for providing troops to the border to help stop illegal immigrants before they cross into America.

In mid-September, the Times reported, Pentagon chief spokesman Jonathan Hoffman gave an update on the construction of the new southern border wall.

“Right now we’re at a pace of about a mile a day. And we’ll see that continue to go up,” Hoffman said.

“It’s going to be a few months but our goal is that by the end of next year, we will have completed over 100—450 miles of wall construction all told across the entire federal government,” he added.