(NewsNation) — More than 73,000 undocumented individuals successfully evaded immigration officials in November, Department of Homeland Security sources confirmed to NewsNation.

Since the 2023 fiscal year started on Oct. 1, there have already been 137,000 gotaways counted, sources confirmed. Border Patrol uses the term gotaways to describe immigrants who are spotted by cameras or border agents but are able to avoid capture.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed to use every tool and resource to secure the border in his state.

It’s a call for help answered in Terrell County, where Sheriff Thad Cleveland says Abbott’s Operation Lonestar is slowing the influx of human and drug smuggling in the county.

Abbott says Operation Lone Star efforts have led to more than 328,000 migrant apprehensions and more than 22,000 criminal arrests since the program began in the spring of 2021.

Cleveland says the governor’s move to add more Texas Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol troopers to assist in covering roadways has already paid off in this community of about 720 people.

He’s documented the chaos caused by pursuits blowing through his county. Cleveland said over the weekend troopers and sheriff’s deputies thwarted four smuggling attempts in one day. The day before that, five smuggling attempts were thwarted — a scene that the sheriff says is happening too often.

“I need help. I need the governor’s help,” Cleveland said. “Border Patrol, they do a great job here. There’s just more activity than they have the resources to put forth.”

So, what happens with the migrants who are encountered?

Cleveland says deputies transport the undocumented individuals to processing facilities so that Border Patrol agents can stay out in the field to detect, track and apprehend groups in the brush.

In the recently ended 2022 fiscal year, there were nearly 600,000 gotaways, up from 389,155 counted in the 2021 fiscal year.