Illegal Migrant Encounters Surge Roughly 36% At Northern Border
Jennie Taer on August 18, 2023
Border Patrol agents at the U.S.-Canadian border saw illegal migrant encounters surge roughly 36% in July, according to federal data updated Friday.
Border agents stationed at the northern border recorded 1,154 illegal migrant encounters in July, which is up from 848 in June, according to the data. Northern border authorities have recorded record surges in illegal immigration in recent years, with encounters jumping from 916 in fiscal year 2021 to 2,238 in fiscal year 2022 and then 6,477 between October 2022 and July.
Reporter Jennie Taer interviews a northern border resident living in Vermont about a surge in illegal immigration. Daily Caller News Foundation
More than half of the migrants crossing illegally from Canada into the U.S. in July were from Latin American countries, according to the data. Migrants are increasingly flying into Canada and opting to cross south into the U.S. illegally because many nationalities don’t require travel visas, multiple officials previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Almost all are flying from Mexico City. They are paying anywhere from $2,000 to $6,000, which is definitely cheaper and they avoid the cartel exploitation,” one border agent told the DCNF at the time.
The surge has forced stretched manpower and resources, which has also been diverted to assist with an influx in illegal migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Agents become overwhelmed with the amount of work that they have to do,” Sean Walsh, president of the National Border Patrol Council for the Swanton sector in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, told the DCNF in the region in March, adding “The priority is the southern border so the majority of the resources are diverted [there].”
A local landowner in Mooers, New York, Tyler Dumas, expressed frustrations with migrants crossing the border illegally into the U.S. from Canada on his land, in a previous interview with the DCNF.
“It hasn’t stopped even through the cold and the snow,” Dumas said at the time.
“I also believe that landowners along the border should get some sort of tax break. We pay crazy taxes and all of this is going on on our land,” he added.
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