Illegal Entries at US-Canada Border Surge 550 Percent

Illegal entries at the U.S.-Canada border continue to surge, with Border Patrol agents reporting a 550 percent increase in apprehensions last fiscal year, according to Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia.

“Swanton Sector Border Patrol Agents have seen an astonishing 550% increase compared to last year by recording 6,925 apprehensions from 79 different countries between 10/01/2022 to 9/30/2023,” Garcia said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The sector covers nearly 300 miles across northern New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont with Canada. Just 1,000 migrants were apprehended in all of fiscal year 2022 and just 365 in fiscal year 2021.

Federal authorities in March added more border patrol agents at a section of the northeastern U.S. border with Quebec in response to a spike in illegal crossings.

“Government immigration policies do not change the need or reasoning of people who decide to cross in one direction or another. Sometimes, all they do is make it riskier to do so. These are people who are fleeing and seeking protection, and sometimes they have to make these impossible and dangerous decisions,” Shauna Labman, director of the Human Rights Program at the University of Winnipeg, Canada, told Noticias Telemundo.

“We are seeing high levels of migration around the world, the highest since World War II,” added Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan organization that seeks to improve immigration and integration policies.

“People are moving at a faster rate than in the past, and that is also seen in the north. There have been increases in migrants at that border, which differs by nationality.”