As the Biden administration finally got some good news on the U.S.-Mexico border, frustratingly, the number of northern border crossings from Canada into the United States has grown.
A record number of unlawful crossings occurred along the US’s northern border last year, with migrants finding it more straightforward to enter via Canada, according to new statistics from US Customs and Border Protection.
Around 70% of the unlawful crossings happened in the Swanton Sector, a 295-mile border that runs through northern New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
A rise of 244% over the previous year, when 3,579 persons were caught, brought the total number of migrants apprehended unlawfully crossing the Canadian border to over 12,000.
In January, there were 176,205 interactions with migrants along the Southwest land border, down from 301,983 in December.
From December to January, the number of migrant interactions across the northern and southern borders of the United States decreased from 370,925 to 242,587. Compared to November (308,636) and October (309,065), the figure reveals a decline of over 65,000.
From November to January, the number of interactions at the U.S.-Canada border jumped by about 1,800, from 14,053 to 15,802. December saw 15,348 encounters, down from 15,399 in October to 11,099 in November.
Although the number of northern border crossings has grown annually throughout the Biden administration, it is still much lower than the number of southern border contacts. After ending at 27,180 in the previous fiscal year, crossings increased to 109,535 in 2022 and 189,402 in the last year.
On Tuesday, Republicans in the House impeached Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), for what they said was his indifference to the crisis of unprecedented migrant encounters. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics published Tuesday show that total border crossings surpassed 988,900 from October to December, with an additional 242,587 in January.
