Citizens from 85 nations have been apprehended in the New England region of the U.S. Canada frontier since last fall, making a sizable increase in the number of refugees caught trying to enter the country illegally.
Border Patrol agents in the New Hampshire, Vermont, and eastern upstate New York area intercepted more illegal immigrants in governmental 2023 than in the past 11 years combined, but in just the first eight months of 2024, arrests have already surpassed last year’s history, according to Robert Garcia, deputy police agent of the Swanton Sector in New England.
More than 2, 900 illegal newcomers were apprehended in the Swanton Sector in May only, nearly three times as many as 1, 065 were detained in all of 2022.
Since October 2023, officials have stopped more than 12, 000 unlawful immigrants in the northern border’s Swanton Sector.
The Biden administration received a letter earlier this spring from House Republican Conference Chairs Elise Stefanik (R-NY), House Republican Caucus co-chairmen Mike Kelly (R-PA ), and Ryan Zinke (R-MT ), and other members who criticized the increase in crossings as” symptomatic of your broader failure to secure the border.”
The politicians wrote that “dangerous people continue to take advantage of the huge Northern Border, which is the longest terrain boundary between two nations in the world, and somewhat open by natural barriers.”
Given that they occurred during the winter months when temperatures rarely drop below zero degrees Celsius, which poses significant health challenges for refugees and law protection, the boost in arrests during the spring was of particular concern.
As the temperatures rise into spring and summer, and as a result of the continued rise in arrests through March, April, and May, lawmakers warned that the winter uptick could spell bigger trouble.
Border Patrol data are only publicly available dating back to 2007. Over the past 17 years, arrests across the northern border have ranged from 2,200 to 7,900 per year, according to U. S. Customs and Border Protection statistics.
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The Swanton Sector makes up nearly 300 miles of the 4, 000- mile Canadian border. Even when the temperatures drop below negative double digits during the winter months, agents use snowmobiles to get through several feet of snow in extremely remote areas.
Unlike the southern border, there is no towering steel wall , to prevent illegal immigration, and technology to track suspicious activity is not as prevalent compared to the drones, ground sensors, infrared cameras, blimps, and long- range cameras seen on the Mexico border.
