A suspected terrorist was apprehended in February crossing into the US from Canada, a threat to US security that's exacerbated by Canada’s lax travel restrictions, said former US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) acting commissioner Mark Morgan..“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 Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF)..“Canada’s immigration system and laws are by far some of the most lax in the world.”.“Many foreign travellers 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,” reported DCNF..During its fiscal year of 2022, CBP says it didn’t encounter any illegal border crossers from Canada on the terror watchlist and just one in fiscal year 2021. The agency’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30..Details on the suspected terrorist weren't released..CBP says it had more than 13,000 migrant encounters at the northern border in February, bringing the total to 68,784 in fiscal year 2023..Former BPC chief, Rodney Scott, also expressed his concerns about the northern border being subject to national security threats, citing terrorist activity in Canada and its lax travel restrictions..“In my experience, prior to 2021, the vast majority of people on the national terrorist watchlist Border Patrol encountered were on the northern border,” Scott told the DCNF. .“The 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 centres 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.” .“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,” reported DCNF..The Swanton sector, which includes parts of New York and Vermont along the northern border had an increase of 845% in illegal migrant apprehensions between October 2022 and January 2023, while illegal crossers not apprehended increased by 900%, said CBP..The DCNFrecently reported from the Swanton sector, saying it encountered migrants from all around the world, including Haitians and Romanians, with border patrol agents telling the news outlet they agreed with the views of Morgan and Scott..“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,” said one agent stationed along the northern border, who wished to remain anonymous because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, reported the DCNF..Another, who was also not authorized to talk publicly, told the DCNF, “The 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."
