As immigrants continue to overload the southern border of the country in record numbers, a growing wave of people is attempting an alternative route to enter the United States irregularly: through the border with Canada, which is usually less patrolled and more extensive.
Instead of facing a grueling journey through the Darién Gap in Panama and an almost certain encounter with the Border Patrol, immigrants from far-flung places like India, China, and Venezuela have been flying to Canada, taking advantage of a border without imposing walls and fences.
However, the dangers involved in the crossing are no less. Many immigrants trapped in dark forests and showing signs of hypothermia have been rescued. At least a dozen immigrants – families, children, and a pregnant mother – have died while attempting to cross the cold region in the past two years.
A growing number of immigrants have been apprehended after illegally crossing into the United States recently.
More than 12,200 people were detained crossing illegally from Canada to the U.S. last year, a 241% increase from the 3,578 detained the previous year. Most of them were Mexican, who can enter Canada without a visa, thus preferring the northern border to avoid the cartels that exploit immigrants in their country.
The phenomenon has transformed a 470-kilometer border area along northern New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire into a migration hotspot: about 70% of illegal crossings in 2023 occurred in this stretch, known as the Swanton Sector.
Robert Garcia, the chief border patrol agent in charge of the Swanton Sector, said in a social media post on Friday (9) that the 3,100 people detained in the sector since last October – more than in the last four fiscal years combined – came from 55 countries.
Clinton County, New York, a rural area with small towns south of the province of Quebec, has emerged as one of the main passages for immigrants heading south.
Illegal crossings are sometimes facilitated by new human smuggling operations, often based out of New York, that advertise their services on social media and charge immigrants thousands of dollars.
Parts of the U.S.-Canada border – which at 5,525 miles is the longest international border in the world – are separated by natural barriers, such as the Great Lakes. But much of the border, especially northeastern New York, is flat and barren, dotted only by woods or open fields where simple stone markers delineate the border.
Source: The New York Times