By Jennie Taer
BURKE, New York — The number of illegal migrants that are known to have evaded arrest in a busy sector of the northern border is surging, according to Sean Walsh, National Border Patrol Council President for the Swanton sector, who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The sector saw approximately 100 known gotaways in the entirety of fiscal year 2022, but has seen roughly 900% more gotaways already between October 2022 and February 2023, Walsh, whose region covers parts of New York and Vermont, told the DCNF. Border agents in the sector have seen an 845% surge in migrant apprehensions, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.
The number of known gotaways far outpaced the number of those apprehended, according to Walsh.
“The northern border is less secure than it ever has been and the security speaks for itself. If we’re losing twelve times the amount of people just in this fiscal year alone than in the whole last year, the cartels and criminal organizations have taken advantage and exploited the border and this administration’s policies or lack of policies to address security,” Walsh told the DCNF.
“The trend is increasing and it’s going to continue to increase until this administration takes border security seriously,” Walsh said, adding that the number is likely higher because the agency lacks the tools to identify the actual number of crossings.
The recent influx of migrants are mainly those flying into Canada and crossing the U.S. northern border illegally, according to several migrants who spoke with the DCNF. The surge is largely happening because migrants are exploiting the lax visa restrictions in Canada, and the fact that many Border Patrol agents stationed along the northern region have been deployed to address the influx at the southern border over the last couple of years.
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