Illegal immigrants entering the US from Canada are a serious concern of more than a dozen Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives..In a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday, the representatives have urged him to act on the crisis at the northern border, according to a letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation..The concern focuses on the Swanton sector along the US-Canada border, which includes parts of New York and Vermont and has seen an almost 900% increase in migrant encounters by the US Border Patrol (USBP)..In the letter, the lawmakers express their serious concern about the unprecedented surge along the US northern border..“This recent influx, along with spikes in drug smuggling and lack of USBP agent staffing, is yet another troubling example of your failure to protect and secure the homeland,” the lawmakers, which include New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, whose district is situated on the northern border wrote..“These surges in border encounters and drug smuggling coupled with a shortage of Border Patrol agents and lack of security measures place America’s northern border at serious risk. As winter turns to spring, we are deeply concerned the northern Border Patrol agents will be even more overwhelmed, under-resourced, and under-manned.” .Most of the USBP’s attention has been drawn to illegal crossings at the US/Mexico border, which saw more than 2.3 million crossings in the 2022 fiscal year..In response, the US government has pulled agents from the northern border to the southern border to help process illegal migrants..“We ask that you provide a full account of what the Department of Homeland Security will do to mitigate the flow of illegal migrants and illicit drugs into the U.S. across our northern border,” the lawmakers wrote..Meanwhile, border officials called out Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday for allowing the crisis to worsen with Canada’s lenient travel policies..The former Border Patrol chief for the Yuma, Arizona, sector, Chris Clem, told Fox News, "Electronic travel authorization allows [migrants], basically visa-free, to fly in from Mexico to Canada, which means now they have access to move about Canada freely. And then at that point, they're coming in.".Sean Walsh, president of the Swanton sector of the National Border Patrol Council, says he believes Mexican cartels are behind the increase in crossings over the northern border.."It's scary to see how the cartels were able to exploit the borders because of the policies that are in place," Walsh told Fox News. "The lack of manpower is a large part of why these cartels were able to start to use the northern border the way that they're using it now.".Walsh said the immigrants fly into Montreal, Ontario and other places in Canada, “and these cartels and smuggling organizations are making money hand over fist."."And despite the freezing temperatures, despite the weather conditions, they're bringing in these people across," he said, decrying the number of agents who have been sent south. "There's no one in the field to apprehend them.".USBP recorded 367 migrant encounters in Vermont's Swanton sector in January 2023, compared to just 344 encounters in the last 12 years combined. .Fox News' Casey Stegall previously reported “the surge at the northern border has prompted agents to return to Vermont to mitigate the unparalleled number of encounters that critics argue was due to the lack of agents.” ."It's very similar to the southern border where the majority of them are being released into the country, some of them are being held," Walsh said. ."And that's one of the issues that we're having, is we already have a low amount of agents in the field, and when we arrest and apprehend somebody, these agents are going back to the office and processing these individuals, leaving the border unsecured again."."We really don't even know what's coming through our borders because we don't have the agents in the field."
