President Joe Biden’s border crisis has expanded to a war on two fronts as a nearly 850 percent increase in illegal alien encounters along one sector of the Canadian border has left Border Patrol seeking agents to voluntarily relocate.
(Video: Fox News)
With investigations underway, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas facing calls for impeachment, and Border Patrol resources already stretched thin across the U.S.-Mexico border, the threat to national security has likewise grown out of control at an unprecedented time in the north.
On Monday, Fox News senior correspondent Casey Stegall obtained a memo issued by Border Patrol Assistant Chief Juan E. Garcia that read, in part, the agency is “seeking volunteers from the Northern and Southwest Border sectors to temporarily detail additional personnel to SWB to increase detection and custody operations, transportation, and flight line security operations.”
SWB refers to the Swanton Sector along the U.S.-Canada border that includes New Hampshire, Vermont, and eastern New York where, according to the sector’s Chief Patrol Agent Robert N. Garcia, there has been an 846 percent increase in encounters and apprehensions from October to January as compared to the year prior.
“Illegal crossing of the Canada/U.S. border in sub-freezing temps continued last week, as #BorderPatrol Agents apprehended 115 subjects from 12 countries–mostly Mexican nationals. Unfortunately, perilous weather has done nothing to deter this traffic,” Sector Chief Garcia tweeted. “Don’t risk it!”
Illegal crossings of the Canada/U.S. border in sub-freezing temps continued last week, as #BorderPatrol Agents apprehended 115 subjects from 12 countries—mostly Mexican nationals. Unfortunately, perilous weather has done nothing to deter this traffic. Don’t risk it! @USBPChief pic.twitter.com/Sjhhz0qJPP
— Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia (@USBPChiefSWB) February 14, 2023
All told, Stegall said there have been 367 apprehensions in January alone, a total that may be dwarfed by the thousands entering from the southern border daily, but amounts to more for the Swanton Sector than the combined total of all Januarys since 2011, of 344.
This is at a time when the northern border typically sees its largest reduction in traffic because of winter conditions that include subzero temperatures.
NEW: Border Patrol leadership is asking for agents to voluntarily deploy to the northern border’s overwhelmed Swanton sector (VT/NH/NY), which has seen an 846% increase in illegal crossings since October, and saw more illegal crossings in January (367) than the previous 12… pic.twitter.com/sb4UnJAWOy
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) February 19, 2023
The dramatic increase wasn’t limited to the Swanton Sector either as Border Patrol reported that for fiscal year 2023, which began on October 1, there have already been around 56,000 encounters along the entirety of the Canadian border, more than 80 percent of which were adults traveling alone. By comparison, throughout all of 2021, there were only 27,000 encounters from our northern neighbor.
Former Yuma Sector Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem explained to Fox News that Mexican nationals have ease of access to Canada because “electronic authorizations allows [aliens], basically visa-free, to fly in from Mexico to Canada, which means now they have access to move about Canada freely. And then at that point, they’re coming in.”
The porous border was only being used for people to cross as, like the southern border, smugglers are transporting drugs into the United States from Canada as well. Border Patrol’s Office Of Field Operations reportedly seized 1,200 lbs of fentanyl in January when accounting for all ports of entry nationwide, up from 796 lbs the year prior.
Since October 1, OFO had seized 12,000 lbs.
The deadline to volunteer was set for February 23 with the detail expected to run from March 1 through April 1.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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