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What is the reason behind Trump’s concern about the U.S.-Canada border? While there has been an increase in arrests for illegal crossings from Canada in the last fiscal year, the numbers are still much lower compared to those from Mexico.
Written by Hamed Aleaziz and Matina Stevis-Gridneff
Donald Trump has continued to express anger towards Mexico for the influx of migrants into the United States. Recently, he has also directed his criticism towards Canada on the same issue.
He stated on Truth Social that there are large numbers of people entering Mexico and Canada, bringing unprecedented levels of crime and drugs. He also shared his plan to impose a 25 percent tariff on all imports from these countries.
Let’s take a look at the current events occurring at the border in the northern United States.
The number of illegal crossings at the northern border has increased significantly, but it is still much lower than those at the southern border. Border agents arrested over 23,000 individuals at the northern border from October 2023 to September 2024, as reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This figure has been on the rise in recent years, jumping from slightly over 2,000 in the 2022 fiscal year to around 10,000 in the 2023 fiscal year.
The majority of the arrests occurred in the Swanton Sector, a region along the northern border between Quebec and the states of Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York.
In a post on social media platform X, Robert Garcia, the top Border Patrol agent in the Swanton region, reported that over 19,222 individuals from 97 different countries were apprehended in the previous year. He mentioned that this number exceeded the total arrests made in the last 17 fiscal years.
In comparison, there was a significant increase in illegal border crossings at the southern border towards the end of last year, with about 250,000 arrests made in December. President Biden implemented a policy in June that limited asylum for individuals who crossed from Mexico, resulting in a sharp decline in numbers. Border agents made around 56,000 arrests in October.
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