Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Canadian border apprehended one individual whose name appeared on the terror watchlist in February amid an influx of illegal migrants, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics released Wednesday.
The agents didn’t catch any individuals on the terror watchlist in fiscal year 2022 and one in all of fiscal year 2021, according to CBP.
There were more than 13,000 migrant encounters recorded in February at the northern border, bringing fiscal year 2023’s total to 68,784.
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Former CBP acting Commissioner Mark Morgan, who also served for two decades in the FBI, and former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott raised concerns about the fact that the northern border is wide open to national security threats, in separate phone interviews with the DCNF.
Both expressed worry over terrorist activity inside Canada and the country’s lax travel restrictions.
Many foreign travelers do not require a visa to travel to Canada and only need what is known as an electronic travel authorization, which costs just seven Canadian dollars.
“Canada poses a significant national security threat on a couple of different fronts. One, we know that there’s a significant concern with respect to homegrown violent extremism in Canada. Canada also poses a significant risk because … our northern border has less technology, infrastructure and resources than our southern border. And third is the maritime environment that we share with Canada is expansive and raises another potential vulnerability that is very difficult to secure,” Morgan told the DCNF, adding “Canada’s immigration system and laws are by far some of the most lax in the world.”
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“In my experience, prior to 2021, the vast majority of people on the national terrorist watchlist Border Patrol encountered were on the northern border. Southern border was not a big crossing location, but we saw that trend start to change in 2021. Part of that is because there’s a much larger known demographic of people associated with terrorism in Canada. And then, of course, Canada’s major population centers are all run on borders. A lot of the reason that there’s more known terrorist associates out there is because of Canada’s immigration laws,” Scott told the DCNF.
Office of Field Operations (OFO) authorities also apprehended 176 individuals at the ports of entry along the border with Canada in fiscal year 2023 so far, outpacing the 38 OFO caught along the southern border during that same time period, according to CBP.
The Swanton sector, which encompasses parts of New York and Vermont, saw an 845% increase in illegal migrant apprehensions between October 2022 and January 2023.
Federal border authorities also saw a roughly 900% increase in illegal migrants evading apprehension between October 2022 and February 2023, Sean Walsh, National Border Patrol Council President for the Swanton sector, previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The DCNF recently reported from the Swanton sector, encountering groups of migrants from across the globe, including Haitians and Romanians. Border Patrol agents stationed along the northern border who spoke with the DCNF echoed the sentiments of Morgan and Scott.
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“The idea that we can have (or even more ludicrous, that we do have) a secure border or even operational control without more agents and effective physical barriers is ridiculous,” one agent stationed along the northern border, who wished to remain anonymous because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, told the DCNF.
“Northern border is just as unpatrolled as the southern border, if not worse. Canada’s visa waiver program for Central American countries is causing a surge in traffic,” another northern border agent, who also wasn’t authorized to talk publicly, told the DCNF.
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