The U.S.-Canada border has begun to see an uptick in the number of illegal immigrants arrested for attempting to enter the country after apprehensions dropped during the coronavirus pandemic.
In the first full month of border closures in April 2020, just 24 noncitizens were caught coming into the country across the 4,000-mile-long continental boundary, which is double the length of the U.S.-Mexico border.
However, in the last nearly three years, significantly more immigrants have come across and either surrendered to agents or attempted to evade arrest.
In December 2022, the last month that data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection is available, 548 immigrants were arrested between Washington state and Maine.
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One particular spot on the Canadian border has seen more people than any other. Seventy percent of arrests since the start of fiscal 2023 were in Border Patrol’s Swanton Sector, which stretches from northeastern New York through Vermont and New Hampshire.
“Undeterred by arctic chill: Despite regional temps dropping to -22 last week, #BorderPatrol Agents in Swanton Sector’s patrol area—Ogdensburg, NY, to Beecher Falls, VT—apprehended 105 subjects from 8 countries, including this snow-covered group near Champlain, NY. Don’t risk it!” the Border Patrol chief for the Swanton Sector, Robert Garcia, wrote in a post to Instagram on Tuesday.
Garcia pointed out in one picture that the white substance on one woman’s legs was not snow but chemicals applied to mask human scent should police K-9 units attempt to track them through the snow.
Agents use snowmobiles to get through multiple feet of snow in extremely remote areas, even when the temperatures dip to negative double digits during the winter months.
Unlike the southern border, there is no towering steel wall to prevent illegal immigration, and technology to track suspicious activity is not as prevalent compared to the drones, ground sensors, infrared cameras, blimps, and long-range cameras seen on the Mexico border.
The 295-mile Swanton Sector stretch saw 1,146 arrests in October, November, and December of the total 1,647 arrests up north.
Mexicans attempting to enter illegally through Canada make up the majority of the arrests in that sector. Title 42 restrictions have made it difficult for Mexicans to enter the United States at the southern border, forcing those turned away to seek another route, including buying a one-way plane ticket north to Toronto or Montreal.
Although both figures pale in comparison to the number of immigrants apprehended by Border Patrol agents along the Mexico border, they are quickly increasing back to pre-pandemic norms and could rise further.
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Border Patrol data that track northern border apprehensions only go back to 2000, which was the year with the highest number of arrests — approximately 12,800. In the two decades since then, northern border arrests have largely hung between 4,000 and 8,000 per year.
Down on the southern border, agents apprehended 221,181 immigrants in December alone compared to 548 on the northern border.
