Officials from the US Border Patrol have made a call for volunteers to redeploy to a section of the northern border that is being overrun by an influx of illegal immigrants from Canada.
According to a document acquired by Fox News, Border Patrol is looking for volunteers from both the northern and southern border to increase staff in the Swanton Sector, which includes New Hampshire, Vermont, and some of eastern New York.
The letter begs assistance from other sectors to strengthen enforcement since Swanton Sector is “experiencing a surge in unlawful entries,” mostly brought on by “Mexican migrants with no legal documentation to enter the United States.”
The memo’s dispatch date is unknown, but it directs volunteers to submit their names no later than February 23 in preparation for a Swanton redeployment that will take place from March 1 to April 1.
While it is not entirely obvious from the context, the letter from Border Patrol Assistant Chief Juan E. Garcia claims that the relocation is in support of “Operation Jagdkommando.”
The Swanton Sector announced last week that it has seen a record number of unlawful crossings lately, with an 846% rise in contacts and apprehensions from October to January compared to the same time last year.
Agents claim they encountered 367 persons in January, the majority of them were Mexican citizens, which is more than they did in the year of 2011. In the Swanton Sector, there have only been 28 crossings each year on average during the last 12 years.
Robert N. Garcia, the chief patrol agent for the Swanton Sector, stated that more families with small children and newborns are being seen crossing the border.
Considering that agents had to carry out at least two rescue operations in January, he also advised migrants not to attempt the journey in the bitter weather.
He stated in a tweet with a picture of migrants slogging through the snow that “illegal crossings of the Canada/U.S. border in sub-freezing conditions resumed last week, as Border Patrol Officers captured 115 people from 12 nations – largely Mexican nationals.”
Sadly, the dangerous weather had little effect on the volume of this travel. Don’t take a chance!
According to US Customs and Border Protection statistics, more over 80% of the 55,736 migrants who have been seen crossing the entire northern border since October 1 were adults traveling alone.
There were 8,784 family units and 1,178 unaccompanied kids.
Despite the very cold winter weather, which recently dropped to -4F, and as authorities struggle to deal with the continuing crisis on the country’s southern border, border crossings in the north continue to soar.
According to Chief Patrol Agent Garcia, “the level of concern for the lives and welfare of our Border Patrol Agents and those we are encountering – particularly vulnerable populations – continues to climb as we progress deeper into winter and continue to address the ongoing pace of illicit cross-border traffic.”
In a statement regarding the record-breaking number of crossings, he added, “It cannot be emphasized enough: not only is it unlawful to circumvent legal means of entry into the United States, but it is also extremely dangerous, particularly in adverse weather conditions, which our Swanton Sector has in incredible abundance.”
In recent weeks, search and rescue operations were needed to offer life-saving assistance in at least two occurrences in Newport, Vermont, and Burke, New York, as a result of the tough winter circumstances near the northern border.
When President Joe Biden assumed office, there has looked to be a correlation between the inflow at the northern border and a comparable increase at the southern border.
The number of interactions and arrests at the northern border for the 2020 fiscal year was 32,376.
The number of interactions at the northern border increased by more than three times to 109,535 during Biden’s first full year in office in Fiscal Year 2022.
Throughout the first six months of this year, from October 2022 to January 2023, CBP faced 55,736 unlawful border crossers.
The biggest single month of crossings along the entire US-Canada northern border occurred in October 2022, when CBP detained 15,883 persons.
From December 2022 and January 2023, there was a sharp reduction in crossings throughout the whole southern border, from a record high of 251,978 to over 100,000 fewer contacts with 156,274.
An Indigenous family of four was discovered dead just north of the Grand Forks area a year ago, exposing the devastating repercussions of trying to cross into Canada.
Then, at the start of January, a Haitian man named Fritznel Richard passed away from hypothermia after freezing to death while attempting to contact his wife in the US.
The preservation of life is the Swanton Sector’s top priority when enforcing its mission of border security, according to Garcia. This includes the lives of the local residents we are sworn to protect, the lives of the Border Patrol agents who carry out the mission day in and day out in the field, and the lives of the people—including families, children, and individuals—who are trying to enter the country illegally.
Sadly, the transnational criminal organizations who stand to benefit from the increasing flow of human traffic are just interested in making money and have no regard for the wellbeing of people whose situation they want to take advantage of.
The Pembina, North Dakota station is one of seven in the Grand Forks sector. Kathryn Siemer, the acting patrol agent in command, said that part of the reason for the high increase in contacts was Canada’s relaxation of COVID regulations.
Migrants may now go to Canada and, if they’re dissatisfied with life there, try their luck in the US.
According to Frantz André, an immigration expert who also leads a nonprofit that aids asylum seekers, Canada’s tightening limitations on immigration may also be contributing to the flow of people to the US.
According to him, many immigrants think they may have higher prospects of finding employment in the US without documentation.
In the meanwhile, Siemer told Global News that she was still troubled by the memory of the Indian family of four who perished in the bitter cold north of her region last year.
Before they died, the family of four spent 11 hours trudging through waist-deep snow in a snowstorm.
On January 19, 2022, when temperatures dropped as low as -40F, Jagdish Patel, 39, and Vaishailben Patel, 37, were discovered dead in a field north of the US border with their kids Vihangi, 11, and Dharkmik, 3.
An investigation into the family’s deaths is ongoing, and Steve Shand, 57, of Deltona, Florida, has been charged with human smuggling in connection with the case.
The family, who are from Gujarat, are said to have traveled to Manitoba from Toronto after arriving in Canada on January 12, 2022.
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