By Alec Schemmel
SWANTON, Vt. (TND) — Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., is blaming the Biden administration’s failure to control immigration on the southern border for a major uptick in illegal border crossings along the U.S.-Canada border.
Between October 1, 2022 and January 31, 2023, there has been a 846% increase in encounters and apprehensions along the Swanton Sector of the northern U.S. border compared to the same period a year ago. Total apprehensions and encounters in that region, which covers land in Vermont, New Hampshire and northeastern New York, during fiscal year 2023 have already surpassed the FY22 and FY21 totals combined, CBP added.
Additionally, CBP indicated that in the month of January, there were more border apprehensions than in any January over the past 12 years.
“Joe Biden has brought his Southern Border crisis to New York State, and now the Biden Administration finally admits the Northern Border across my district is not secure,” Stefanik said in a Tuesday news release. “From the beginning, I have stood up for our border patrol and warned against how Joe Biden’s Southern Border crisis has forced border patrol agents in my district into no-notice deployments, weakening morale and leaving security openings at the Northern Border.”
Stefanik said her office has been in contact with “numerous” families along the U.S.’s northern border who have recorded first-hand accounts of vast amounts of illegal crossings occurring on their own private property.
“Instead of addressing this crisis, Joe Biden has passed the buck and shipped his crisis to New York State with the assist from Kathy Hochul and Eric Adams, who both support policies to incentivize illegal immigrants to continue to pour into New York,” Stefanik continued in her Tuesday statement. “Our taxpayers, border patrol agents, and Upstate communities are unfairly bearing the brunt of this crisis. We must secure our border and support our border patrol agents.”
The Biden administration’s handling of the border has come under intense scrutiny from Republicans following a year of historic apprehensions along the southern border. Between October 2021 and October 2022, CBP reported 2.3 migrant apprehensions along the southern border. While the total number of encounters and apprehensions occurring in the north do not come close to those in the south, the parallel rise is telling.
Fox News obtained an internal email from a top border patrol official who wrote to sector chiefs requesting help along the Swanton Sector that USBP headquarters was “seeking volunteers” from within the agency to assist with the influx of encounters along the northern border.
CBP’s request for volunteer help says those willing to assist would travel on March 1 and return in April, Fox News noted.
Read the article on CBS6 here.
