ABOVE: Local residents living along the northern border have seen migrants crossing on their properties, making them feel less safe. PHOTO: US Border Patrol Swanton Sector
The NY/VT/NH border with Canada has become the number-one northern area for illegal crossings, with migrants from 85 different countries since October and thousands more from India and Latin America since May.
By Jennie Taer | New York Post
President Joe Biden has a 5,500-mile loophole in his border crackdown.
The US-Canada border — the longest in the world — remains wide open for migrants seeking to enter the country illegally and claim asylum because it’s not part of the Biden administration’s latest restrictions, sources told The Post.
Without the same restrictions as the southern border, a record 3,600 migrants entered illegally in June — more than recorded crossings for all of 2022, according to leaked Homeland Security data obtained by The Post.
“The executive order doesn’t affect us,” a Border Patrol source at the northern border told The Post.
“Family units are getting released and singles are sent to detention for adjudication.”
Even with Biden’s asylum restrictions on the southern border, the administration allowed in more than 100,000 migrants in June, according to The Post’s recent analysis of leaked Homeland Security data.
The policy is meant to bar asylum access to migrants who enter illegally until such crossings fall below an average of 1,500 per day. It does, however, offer a multitude of exceptions.
Meanwhile, the northern border has become an opportune place for migrants trying to enter the US illegally in recent years as the area has few barriers and fewer border agents, DHS sources told The Post.
The surge in illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border has also pulled resources from the northern border, including agents who have been moved to help interview migrants caught down south via video conference calls.
Border agents have also been physically deployed south to temporarily help their colleagues process migrants over the last three years.
In one instance, he noticed startled deer run by before two men “of Mexican descent” wearing backpacks and carrying walking sticks followed.
“He stopped right underneath me and was looking at his iPhone and was following a trail, so obviously somebody gave him a route of which way to go,” said Feeley, who now carries a firearm on his own property.
“I was just stunned, I didn’t know what to do. I just let them walk off, I gave them 10 minutes before I went back to the barn to call Border Patrol.”88
The region has also had more terror-watch-listed individuals attempting to cross via ports of entry, with more than 198 caught between October and May — and 484 in the previous financial year, according to federal data. ##