Up to 30 million people living in the United States are illegal immigrants, Dan Patrick, the Republican lieutenant governor of Texas, estimated on Friday.
“We think we get one out of every five [migrants illegally entering the country],” Patrick said on Fox Business Network Friday. “That means every year since 2004, a million to a million and a half are getting across that we don’t apprehend. If you add those numbers to 2004 we have 25 to 30 million people here illegally.”
In fiscal year 2017, the Border Patrol apprehended 415,000 illegal immigrants at the southwest border, which was down from 563,000 the previous year.
At Patrick’s estimation of only one-in-five migrants being caught, more than 2 million would have managed to get into the U.S. in 2016.
The Bipartisan Policy Center think tank has estimated 11 million people do not have legal permission to reside in the country and are living in the shadows.
[Also read: Trump administration could be holding 30,000 border kids by August, officials say]
