US-Canada Border Point Sees Record Migrant Crossings; Sharp Rise in Indians Detained at US Border with Canada – with Number Caught Attempting to Sneak Across Already 50% Higher than Last Year
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US-Canada Border Point Sees Record Migrant Crossings:
A section of the border between the United States and Canada has recorded its highest number of apprehensions for illegal migrant crossings in one month.
Officials for the Swanton Sector in Vermont said there were 1,109 apprehensions in March 2024. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures, this is up from 756 in March 2023, and just 61 in March 2022.
The March 2024 figure of 1,109 is higher than the total amount of crossings in all of 2022, which was 1,065.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia of the Border Patrol Swanton Sector said the 1,109 apprehensions last month included people from 40 different countries.
“The top three nationalities apprehended were 408 Indian, 323 Bangladeshi, and 170 Mexican nationals,” Garcia said.
Newsweek reached out to the Customs and Border Protection’s press office via email for further comment.
The Context
The issue of illegal migrant crossing on both the northern and southern border looks set to be one of the hot topic issues heading into the 2024 election between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
Biden has long faced criticism for the record-breaking levels of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Elsewhere, polls suggest that voters believe Trump will be the better candidate for handling immigration if he is in the White House next January. —>READ MORE HERE
Sharp rise in Indians detained at US border with Canada – with number caught attempting to sneak across already 50% higher than last year:
Border agents have recorded a sharp rise in Indians attempting to illegally enter the US from Canada in a trend immigration attorneys expect could continue until the election.
There were 30,010 Indian nationals apprehended at the norther border in 2023 compared to just 2,225 two years earlier during the height of the pandemic, according to figures published by US Customs and Border Protection.
A further 16,622 have also arrived this fiscal year, which began on October 1.
The data shows a rise in encounters at ports of entry, including airports, but also a surge in migrants arrested while trying to sneak into the country across the treacherous land border.
Indians account for the third-largest group of undocumented migrants in America amid a booming industry in the country led by fixers who charge up to $100,000 to help people reach the United States illegally.
The increase comes amid an overall increase in illegal crossings at the northern border, with migrants increasingly willing to brave the harsh conditions to avoid the chaotic southern border.
Experts have said the rise in crossings by Indian migrants is part of the broader trend of increased illegal migration to the United States in recent years.
The current crisis is primarily at the southern border but some wealthier migrants choose to enter Canada first, in part because it is easier to obtain a visa, then cross the northern border.
Many of the Indian nationals choosing the route are ‘not the desperately poor’ but come from middle-class families who expect to find more opportunities and higher pay in the United States, experts say.
Devesh Kapur, a South Asian studies professor at Johns Hopkins University, told the Washington Post that a shortage of jobs in India has contributed to a ‘culture of migration’.
In major cities, immigration agents offer transport to America for fees in the tens of thousands of dollars. Some migrants travel across as many as a dozen countries on their way before arriving either in Mexico or Canada then entering the US over a land border. —>READ MORE HERE
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