With all eyes on the flood of illegals pouring across the United States' southern border daily, few are looking to the north where a dangerous new breach has opened along eastern sections of the vast and varied terrain of America's long 5,525-mile border with Canada. What began decades ago as a trickle of illegals entering here and there has now become thousands, primarily across the northeastern corridor of New York State, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Illegal crossings at this section of our northern border surged 500% in 2023 from 2022, with U.S. Border Patrol agents making 10,021 arrests, five times the number of arrests they made the previous year. Despite the initial detention, many of those caught are let go to freely travel and settle wherever they please within the United States, with no one tracking them thereafter.
As a result, these states and their citizens are suddenly finding themselves grappling with - some for the very first time - with the very same headaches and crimes as their fellow Americans in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
Why the northern border? Why now? The answer is two-fold: First, the northern border is predominantly composed of thousands of miles of rural, remote landscapes, sometimes rugged forests and wilderness, the vast majority of it unmanned. The other real driver for the breach has been Canada's extremely lax policies under PM Justin Trudeau. Until a few weeks ago, Canada didn't require Mexicans and some other foreign nationals to have even a basic tourist visa to fly into the country to stay - only an electronic authorization form, which can be bought easily online. Others are coming into Canada legally and then heading straight to the U.S. border to cross illegally. U.S. border agents have documented crossings by nationals from 79 countries around the world. They are finding that many illegals caught crossing into the U.S. do so within 24 hours of arriving in Canada. It had been an illegal national’s and smuggler's dream scenario.
In fact, many illegals who snuck into the United States in 2019 and were released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) now operate highly sophisticated and lucrative smuggling rings, bringing in a flood of still other foreign nationals via Canada for upwards of $6,000 a person, and those meeting up with illegals on the U.S. side of the border can make upwards of $25,000 for picking them up and transporting them deeper into America. One such smuggling ring, based in New Jersey, continues to operate despite some of its leaders being nabbed by authorities multiple times. Two of its kingpins have been arrested and charged by U.S. law enforcement; one still operates in Canada. Lower-level smugglers in the same operation told authorities that illegal smuggling gangs within their sphere continue to this day to bring in illegals from Canada undetected.
The border with Canada is the longest international border in the world. Yet, the majority of illegal crossings occur along a fraction of it - a 90-mile stretch of Vermont that forms part of the Swanton Sector, a span of nearly 300 miles of mostly remote parts of northeastern New York state, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Out of the 10,021 detentions on the northern border last year, 6,905 came through the Swanton Sector. This was a 500% spike from 2022.
U.S. Border Patrol agent Erik Lavallee, in charge of the Beecher Falls Station in Vermont, recently told a Boston-based CBS affiliate that in his nearly 20 years on the job, he has never witnessed such a flood of illegals trying to sneak into the U.S. as he has this past year. He said in the Swanton Sector alone, border agents arrested 7,000 migrants last year, more than the previous 12 years combined. Those caught hail from a variety of nations, including Bangladesh, India, and Venezuela. Still, nearly half of all those apprehended on the Canadian border are Mexicans.
As with our southern border, the vast majority of illegals crossing from Canada into the U.S. are men; very few are with families. More disturbing still, the U.S. Border Patrol says that of those caught last year entering the U.S. illegally, 564 were on the U.S. terror watch list. Here's another shock: A whopping 484 of those were apprehended trying to sneak in from Canada. So far this year, agents have nabbed 103 people from the watchlist trying to enter the U.S. from Canada. Many illegals believe it is far easier to breach the U.S./Canadian border than the southern border with Mexico - not as many border agents, border entry points, and far less risk of detection.
The Biden Administration has rightly come under fire for not only allowing open borders and unfettered access for millions of illegals to march through onto U.S. soil every year but, worse, for actively facilitating it. From flying asylum seekers across the border on thousands of chartered flights a year to refusing to allocate enough border patrol personnel and funds to stop the floodgates of illegals, this White House and Democrat-run states, with their sanctuary cities policy, seem not simply oblivious to the dangers of this reckless policy. They appear to want to do everything possible to increase the number of illegals pouring in. And no number of heinous crimes - from violent assaults to rapes and murders of U.S. citizens, even of children, is set to deter them.
There's the case last September of Honduran national Carlos Corrales-Ramirez, 20, for a fatal stabbing of a man in Troy, New York. According to police, Corrales-Ramirez went after his victim, allegedly stabbing him several times in the chest, torso, and arm area with a large knife in a frenzied attack. Prosecutors revealed that he was previously arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection near Champlain, NY, close to the border with Canada last March for not having documentation to be in the United States.
Just this week, Corey Alvarez, a 26-year-old Haitian migrant who came to the U.S. last June via Biden's controversial parole program was charged with raping a 15-year-old disabled girl at a hotel-turned-migrant center in Rockland, Massachusetts, outside of Boston. Among the group that was allowed in with Alvarez, were Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan illegals, or CHNV Parole Program, for short. Alavarez was flown in at taxpayer expense directly from Haiti to New York City, a designated sanctuary city, with a two-year parole grant. To qualify, an asylum seeker only needs to show that they have not previously entered illegally, pass background checks, and have a sponsor in the United States. How is it, then, that so many coming in through this and other Biden-led programs end up committing horrific crimes soon after arriving here? One wonders.
Yet, the administration and its fellow Democrats pretend to wring their hands before the media and constituents while egging on these same reckless policies when they step away from the cameras.
The Wild West insanity unfolding daily on both the northern and southern borders has more than a one-party villainy that keeps it going. Already, outrage is growing and a threat of boycott looms for Tyson Foods, one of the largest meat-processing producers in the nation, as it has announced the closure of poultry and meat-processing plants across Missouri, Indiana, Arkansas, Virginia, and Iowa. At the same time, the company is set to hire thousands of illegals in New York, offering them $16.50-an-hour wages and free immigration lawyers. America First Legal, a conservative action group, put out a statement reiterating that "It is illegal under federal law to discriminate against American citizens… in favor of non-citizens of any kind when it comes to employment."
In Maine, residents are up in arms over officials in the coastal city of Brunswick, Maine, who are spending millions of taxpayer dollars to build lavish new one-and two-bedroom condominiums - outfitted with marble countertops and upscale appliances - for illegal migrants while failing to outlay anything comparable for American military veterans or the poor, many of whom are forced to live on the streets. Maine families would have to pay $2,400 a month to get what the foreign asylum seekers are getting rent free. The state-run Maine Housing has set aside $33.2 million in emergency funds solely for providing illegals with free housing. That swallows up two-thirds of Maine’s entire annual emergency housing fund. Meanwhile, one state veteran housing organization is suffering more than a $11 million shortfall. Portland, Maine, has some 4,000 residents already living on the streets, and that number shows no sign of diminishing.
Massachusetts, like New York, has a Right to Shelter law mandating that the state provide emergency aid and shelter to families, without demanding that they show proof of U.S. citizenship. This becomes another way for states to outlay millions of dollars of taxpayer funds to house and feed illegal migrants. Boston has booted out minority community groups to use their facilities, have forced hotel owners to open rooms for migrants, and, at one point, even cordoned off sections of Logan International Airport to house them temporarily. The price tag isn’t cheap. The state is sometimes paying hotels $64 per day, per migrant for meals - $16 for breakfast, $17 for lunch, and $31 for dinner. It is not a stretch to question this ongoing expenditure when the state has not come close to providing such funds for their own working poor.
Where does this all end for these northern border states sagging beneath the weight of this ongoing illegal invasion? One can get a good idea by seeing the effects of the unbridled illegal flood streaming constantly across the southern border. The view is dire.
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