Huge Spike in Illegal Immigration Along Northern Border, Including from Terrorist Nation

While most headlines focus on the southern border crisis the United States is also seeing record-breaking numbers of illegal immigrants along the extensive northern border with one U.S. Border Patrol sector reporting more migrants in the last few months than in the last four fiscal years combined. Since October 1, 2023—the start of this fiscal year—agents in the Swanton Sector, which oversees parts of Vermont, New York, and New Hampshire, have apprehended 3,100 subjects from 55 countries, according to chief patrol agent Robert Garcia. In a social media post, Garcia includes a recent photo of an early morning apprehension of four adult males from Bangladesh near Mooers, New York. “The record-breaking surge of illegal entries from Canada continues in Swanton Sector,” Garcia writes, adding that a “citizen’s report in Champlain, NY, led to the arrest of 10 Bangladesh citizens.”

This is especially concerning because Bangladesh is a hotbed of terrorism. The South-Asian Islamic country is well known as a recruiting ground for terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In the last few years there has been an alarming surge in Bangladeshi migrants trying to enter the U.S. via Mexico, reportedly to conduct attacks. A congressional probe made public a few years ago reveals that migrants from terrorist nations are trying to enter the United States through the southern border at record rates, including an astounding 300% increase in Bangladeshi nationals attempting to sneak into the country through Texas alone. Shortly after the congressional report was released, federal authorities arrested a Mexican-based Bangladeshi smuggler in Houston and charged him with bringing in 15 fellow countrymen through the Texas-Mexico border. His name is Milon Miah and he lives in Tapachula, in the southeast Mexican state of Chiapas bordering Guatemala. Now large numbers of Bangladeshis are coming in through Canada, which shares the world’s largest international border with the U.S.

Last year more than 12,200 illegal immigrants were apprehended crossing into the U.S. from Canada, a stunning 241% spike from the previous year’s 3,578. The majority were Mexicans who are permitted to fly into Canada without a visa. “The phenomenon has transformed a 295-mile border area along northern New York, Vermont and New Hampshire into a hot spot of migration,” according to a mainstream newspaper story published a few days ago. Around 70% of the illegal crossings last year occurred on that stretch (known as the Swanton Sector), the article reveals. “Rather than deal with an arduous journey through the Darién Gap in Panama and a near-certain encounter with the Border Patrol, migrants from as far as Mexico, India and Venezuela who have the wherewithal have been flying to Canada — taking advantage of border crossings without any imposing walls or fences,” the story says.

A Democrat New York legislator who represents the northeastern part of the state just south of the Canadian province of Quebec, is quoted in the article blasting the feds. “The northern border has been pretty much ignored,” according to Assemblyman Billy Jones. He also said the federal government is “failing on immigration, and they’re failing the people that live along the border.” The surge in illegal immigration is also overwhelming local officials in New York’s North Country, according to the report. Farmers and residents of small towns in the area are increasingly spotting illegal immigrants on their property after crossing from Canada. “The illegal crossings are sometimes facilitated by new human smuggling operations, often based outside New York, which advertise their services on social media and charge migrants thousands of dollars to get them into the country from Canada, often leaving them indebted to the smugglers,” the news article states.

The northern border has long been neglected by the government even as serious national security issues prevail in the region. Nearly a decade and a half ago, a federal audit revealed that less than 1% of the U.S.-Canada border is adequately secured by the U.S. Around the same time, another federal investigation found that the Border Patrol was not adequately guarding a rural and dangerous stretch of the Canadian border that runs from Washington to Montana and is rife with drug smuggling and potential terrorism and gang threats. The area is considered an important entry point for aircraft that smuggle drugs from Canada, the probe found. A Montana senator requested the investigation to assess drug trafficking and terrorist threats along the mostly unmanned, 1,000-mile stretch of federal land adjacent to Canada.