US patrol agents being transferred to northern border with Canada trends now
U.S. Customs and Border Protection transferred 25 extra agents to the northern border on Monday as the number of migrants crossing in from Canada continues to rise.
Some of those agents had previously been assigned to the southern border, NBC News reported.
While illegal crossings at the southern border remain a larger overall problem, the number of crossings at the north has risen nearly 850% and is causing concern.
It is a problem that works both ways - some migrants are actually sneaking into Canada from the U.S., causing a spike in immigration numbers for America's neighbor to the north. Leaders there are demanding to speak to President Joe Biden about the problem.
Migrant families at the Roxham Road border crossing in Quebec
A CBP spokesperson told NBC their agency began temporarily deploying Border Patrol agents from sectors 'not experiencing an influx' to the Swanton Sector of the U.S.-Canadian border 'due to migration fluctuations along the Northern Border.'
'While the apprehension numbers are small compared to other areas with irregular migration flows, Swanton Sector apprehensions constitute a large change in this area,' the spokesperson said.
'The deployed team will serve as a force multiplier in the region and assist to deter and disrupt human smuggling activities being conducted in the Swanton Sector area of responsibility.'
The Swanton Sector, which includes sections of Vermont, New Hampshire and New York, experienced an 846% increase in apprehensions from October 2022 through this January, compared to the year prior.
Agents apprehended 367 people in January, which they say is more than they encountered since 2011 combined.
The average annual number of encounters in the Swanton Sector over the last dozen years is just 28.
The Swanton Sector is a a 2,200 square mile area with USCBP agents based in Swanton, Vermont.
There is no fencing along the crossing. Much of the area is woods and dirt paths. There is heavy snowfall and wetlands across the region this time of year.
Nearly two-thirds of the southbound migrants arrested by U.S. border agents in the Swanton Sector are from Mexico, according to USCP numbers.
The border problem works both ways as Canada is also getting a flux in migrants - above migrants exit a bus in Plattsburgh, New York where taxi drivers are waiting to take them to the Canadian border
