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- Between October 1 and December 31, the Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector – covering Vermont and New Hampshire – saw a surge in migrant encounters
- Agents reported a 743 percent increase in apprehensions and encounters compared to the same period the year prior
- Border Patrol officials say they are worried that migrants are unaware of how cold it can get, and say people traffickers are exploiting their desperation
Border Patrol working in the north of the US have reported a 743 percent rise in migrant encounters compared to the same period a year ago.
Robert Garcia, the chief patrol agent for the Swanton Sector – which covers Vermont, New York and New Hampshire – said he was troubled by the increasing popularity of the people-smuggling route.
He warned traffickers are exploiting desperate asylum seekers with potentially lethal consequences, amid freezing temperatures and dangerous passages.
Meanwhile the Grand Forks sector, which covers Minnesota and North Dakota, has reported 90 apprehensions in the three months since October 1.
The figure is more than for the whole of the 2022 fiscal year, when 80 were apprehended between September 30, 2021 and October 1, 2022.
It comes as a surprise as officials focus on clogging the southern border, which has reached crisis point as thousands migrants seek entry from Mexico.
Meanwhile the Grand Forks sector, which covers Minnesota and North Dakota, has reported 90 apprehensions in the three months since October 1.
The figure is more than for the whole of the 2022 fiscal year, when 80 were apprehended between September 30, 2021 and October 1, 2022.
It comes as a surprise as officials focus on clogging the southern border, which has reached crisis point as thousands migrants seek entry from Mexico.
The latest data ‘represent a sustained increase in illegal border crossings as we head into the harshest winter months,’ they said.
Overnight temperatures in the zone regularly drop to 12F, and have dropped below zero in previously years.
‘Unpredictable storm fronts bring ice and significant snow accumulation throughout the extended winter season,’ the Border Patrol warned.
‘These geographic and weather features can make traversing unfamiliar territory perilous.
‘Additionally, the risk of hypothermia from sustained or even brief outdoor exposure to near-freezing temperatures in wet or windy conditions is significant.’
Garcia tweeted: ‘In less than four months, Swanton Sector’s apprehensions have surpassed the COMBINED two prior years (FY2021-2022).
‘In the face of this adversity, our #BorderPatrol Agents remain steadfast in their portrayal of our ideals: Vigilance, Integrity, & Service to Country. #HonorFirst.’
Kathryn Siemer, acting patrol agent in charge of the station in Pembina, North Dakota – one of seven stations in the Grand Forks sector – said the sharp spike in encounters was due in part to Canada loosening its COVID restrictions.
Migrants have been able to make their way to Canada, and, if unsatisfied by their life there, try their luck in the US.
Another factor driving the increase is Canada placing increasing barriers on migrants, said Frantz André, an immigration consultant who runs an organization that helps asylum seekers.
He told CBC migrants believe they may have better chances of working without papers in the US.
Siemer told Global News she remained haunted by the thought of the Indian family of four, who died north of her sector last year.
The parents and two children trudged through waist-deep snow in a blizzard for 11 hours before they perished.
Jagdish Patel, 39 and Vaishailben Patel, 37 were found dead with their children Vihangi, 11 and Dharkmik, three, in a field north of the US border on January 19, 2022, as temperatures plummeted to as low as -40F.
Steve Shand, 57, from Deltona, Florida has been charged with human smuggling and an investigation into the family’s deaths continues.
The family, originally from Gujarat, is believed to have made their way into Manitoba province from Toronto, where they initially entered Canada on January 12, 2022.
On the southern border, meanwhile, the border city of Yuma, Arizona, says it is is at breaking point – with the unprecedented flow of migrants leaving the community at the brink of collapse and hospitals and food banks overloaded.
Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines criticized the Biden administration for its handling of the border crisis and said his county will crumble as it can’t support the arrival of more migrants.
Customs and Border officials say some five million migrants have crossed over the U.S. southern border since January 2021 when the Biden administration took over.
After Yuma County’s Border Patrol saw a 171 percent increase in migrant crossings between 2021 and 2022, Lines warned that the situation will only get worse.
‘Policies need to be changed when you see an unprecedented amount of people coming across the border that even supersedes what we saw under any of the other presidents for the past 30 years,’ he told Fox News.
He called the surging increase in crossings ‘ridiculous’.
‘They’re coming because they said that Biden told them to come, that we have an open border.’
Yuma is known as the ‘sunniest city on Earth’, but over recent years it has become known as the US’ hotspot for migrant crossings that has stretched its Border Control to the limit.
Facilities along the border are being pushed to breaking point due to the increasing migrant flow, with residents reportedly unable to access the only hospital in the city.
Migrants are coming from Central America in hope of a better life for them and their families, but locals and critics of the current immigration policy view the current numbers as unsustainable.
Most of the migrants are drawn to the area by the relative ease of crossing the border, officials say.
According to Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls, there are 50 breaks in the border wall along the 126-mile Yuma sector, including the infamous ‘Gap’.
Huge container-sized gaps in the 30ft border wall allow migrants to walk right through, aided by a thinly-spread Border Patrol.
Construction is currently underway to fill some of the gaps.
To add to the surge, Fox News reported that their sources confirmed 1.2million illegal migrants had escaped the Border Patrol force since January 2021.
Border counties like Yuma are trying to balance the needs of residents with the migrants queueing
A strain has also been put on the city when it comes to food, with migrants walking across crop fields risking a pillar of the community’s local economy.
Yuma is the winter lettuce capital of the US due to its famed all-year-round sun. It produces 93 percent of the country’s lettuce during the winter months.
Local farmer Alex Muller told Fox News: ‘Our fields are monitored and audited and tested for different pathogens. You can’t have people walking through the field.’
County Supervisor Lines called on the Biden administration to act to relieve the pressure on border counties, and to visit Yuma to witness the strain that has been placed on the community.
‘Please come and see for yourself,’ Lines said. ‘I’ve invited them several times, and I would invite them again right now,’ he added.
A bipartisan delegate from Washington DC, led by Senators Kyrsten Sinema and John Cornyn visited Yuma earlier this month. But officials complained that they saw a ‘sanitized’ version of the border crisis.
Jody Abraham
January 30, 2023 at 7:13 pm
Is she stupid or what?