Migrant Surge Continues Across Snow-Covered Canadian Border into US; A Stretch of Canadian Border Bustles With Migrants

WATCH: Migrant Surge Continues Across Snow-Covered Canadian Border into U.S.:

A video tweeted by Swanton Sector Border Patrol officials shows one of several groups of migrants apprehended after trekking across the snow-covered Canadian border into the United States. The 94 migrants from 11 nations add to the exponential surge where officials reported an increase in migrant apprehensions of 850 this fiscal year over last.

Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia tweeted a video showing a group of migrants trudging through the snow after they illegally crossed the border from Canada into the United States.

This was just one of several groups Swanton Sector agents encountered over the snowy weekend. 94 individuals from 11 different countries were apprehended across New York and Vermont. pic.twitter.com/7trpkqTD5G

— Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia (@USBPChiefSWB) March 9, 2023

“This was just one of several groups Swanton Sector agents encountered over the snowy weekend,” Chief Garcia tweeted. “94 individuals from 11 different countries were apprehended across New York and Vermont.”

Garcia also tweeted a report about the “elevated levels of illegal entries from Canada.”

“In just over 5 months, we have apprehended more individuals than the last three (3) Fiscal Years combined,” he stated. “The current rate of illicit cross-border activity is unprecedented for Swanton Sector.” —>READ MORE HERE

WSJ: A Stretch of Canadian Border Bustles With Migrants:

Officials for U.S. and Canada encounter unprecedented numbers

One recent snowy afternoon, Ali Azimi, a 32-year-old civil engineer from Afghanistan, asked a Canadian official here whether he was allowed to cross over a short footpath at the end of Roxham Road and into Canada.

“I want to be arrested,” he said. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer responded that he couldn’t tell Mr. Azimi what to do. Seconds later Mr. Azimi, followed by fellow Afghan national Reza Rasa, 31, walked across the border, and the two were escorted into a processing center by the officer.

The men are among the record numbers of migrants who are crossing the U.S.-Canadian border—heading both north and south—in the midst of a continuing crackdown on the southwest border and lengthy waits for asylum decisions in U.S. immigration courts.

In a remote stretch of border connecting northeastern New York and Vermont, more than 1,500 people have been caught trekking through the woods from Canada into the U.S. between Oct. 1, the start of the government’s budget year, and the end of January. During the same period a year earlier, border agents made 160 arrests in the same area, known as the U.S. Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector. Across the entire northern U.S. border, 2,227 people, nearly the total for all of the 2022 budget year, have been arrested crossing the border.

The activity likely is the result of a general tightening along the U.S.-Mexico border. Last year the Biden administration expanded its use of pandemic-era public-health laws to quickly expel some migrants before they could apply for asylum. The administration is also planning to enact changes as to who is allowed to seek asylum from the U.S.

The number of arrests along the Canadian border remains a fraction of those from the southwest border, but federal officials along the Canadian border have said they have never before seen this volume of arrests. —>READ MORE HERE

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