US/Canadian Border Faces Surge in Illegal Migrant Crossings

The Foreign Desk: The United States border with Canada is on pace to quadruple migrant encounters from the north, according to reports Wednesday. The latest news comes as the Biden administration faces crises on both the northern and southern borders, despite administration officials saying borders are secured. 

In letter to the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas, New York Republican lawmaker Elise Stefanik, who represents New York’s northern border with Canada, condemned the President and DHS Mayorkas for letting a massive surge of migrants and illicit drugs like fentanyl come into the country from the northeastern front, including Vermont and Maine. 

“The northern border is bigger and has less infrastructure and personnel than the southern border. Cartels and terrorist organizations adapt quickly to U.S. law enforcement. We should never take our eye off the northern border,” said Lora Ries, Director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation.

Stefanik said the US Customs and Border Patrol agents reported around 2,238 illegal migrant encounters for the fiscal year 2022. During the four months of that year, migrant encounters rose to 2,227, surpassing last year’s total. In a letter with fellow Republican representative Nick Langworthy, Stefanik explained that “this recent influx, along with spikes in drug smuggling and lack of US Border Patrol (USBP) agent staffing, is yet another troubling example of your failure to protect and secure the homeland.” MORE