America's Northern Border Confronts Record-Breaking Migrant Surge

While illegal migration at the U.S.-Mexico border continues to dominate election year politics, the country's northern border with Canada is also confronting a record-breaking surge in unlawful crossings.

More than 12,200 people were apprehended crossing illegally into the U.S. from Canada in 2023—a 241 percent jump from the 3,578 arrested the previous year, The New York Times reported. Some 70 percent of those crossings occurred along a 295-mile stretch of the border along northern New York, Vermont and New Hampshire known as the Swanton Sector.

Robert Garcia, the chief patrol agent for the sector, said on social media earlier in February that more than 3,100 people from 55 counties have been apprehended in the sector since October 1.

Lawmakers have called on President Joe Biden to take action on the Canadian border, which is less fortified than the southern border with Mexico.

Rep. Claudia Tenney, a Republican from New York, pointed to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection that showed a majority of people on the terrorist watchlist who crossed into the U.S. illegally last year did so along the northern border.

"We know there are going to be terror cells and people who are going to do harm to the American people are coming across that border," she said in an interview with Fox Business. "Now is the time to shut down the border."

Assemblyman Billy Jones, a Democrat who represents New York's Clinton County, told the Times that the northern border "has been pretty much ignored."

The federal government is "failing on immigration, and they're failing the people that live along the border," he said.

Newsweek contacted U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the White House for comment via email.

In a statement to the newspaper, a CBP spokeswoman said the U.S. has established a close working relationship with Canada "to facilitate lawful crossings through ports of entry and to counter irregular migration, including in the Swanton Sector."

She said the agency "continuously adjusts to shifting trends while continuing to call on Congress to provide the resources and personnel necessary to sustain and improve our border security along all our borders."

Most of the migrants apprehended crossing illegally from Canada last year were Mexicans, who were able to fly to Canada without a visa.

Canada is now reportedly considering implementing visa requirements for Mexicans after Quebec's leader last month urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to help stem the flow of refugees into the province, saying services were close to "breaking point" because of it.