While all eyes are on the southern border, migrants are finding innovative ways to cross into the US from Canada.
Five people, who were arrested on Wednesday, were hoping perhaps to be taken for lost tourists as they tried to enter the country by floating across the Niagara River.
Niagara Falls Border Patrol Agent in Charge, Brady Waikel, stated that while working in cooperation with the Lewiston Police Department and CBPO’S Customs and Border Protection officers from the Office of Field Operations, they “responded to the area and as part of that response, we were able to see these four individuals get into a vehicle on the Niagara Scenic Parkway.”
A spokesperson for the Lewiston Police said four people, originating from Mexico, were allegedly attempting to cross the river near Youngstown around 10:30 p.m.
“The incidents have increased. I believe that this is probably the fourth within the past two weeks that we’ve had that we’ve been involved in helping them and that’s just the ones that we’re aware of,” said Lewiston Chief of Police Frank Previte, referring to the USBP.
After tracking the raft from the Canadian side, the four occupants were observed loading into a vehicle driven by a fifth that the officers had previously pulled over. One of the five subjects in the vehicle allegedly attempted to flee the scene but was taken into custody by Border Patrol along with the other four occupants.
The inventive migrants had already been spotted and the officers were not caught by surprise. “At the time that it was stopped we knew the raft was coming across and we were looking for it. So, it was stopped because it was a suspicious vehicle in the area,” Waikel continued.
This incident, at one of the most popular tourist destinations in the nation, is representative of a much larger surge that is occurring at the Canadian border, where there are many points in heavily wooded areas that remain largely unsurveilled and make easy illegal entry points.
According to official statistics, the number of people apprehended by US Border Patrol agents in the northern sector surged by 171% in fiscal year 2021, compared to the previous year. The most up-to-date figures from 2023 provided by CBP (Canadian Border Patrol) , recorded 189,402 encounters at the northern border in the fiscal year. This includes people who arrive at legal points of entry and turn themselves in to request asylum, as well as those who are captured after illegally crossing into the U.S.
“We have exceeded 6,700 apprehensions in less than 1 year, exceeding the previous 11 years combined,” Robert García, head of the Border Patrol in the Swanton, Vermont sector, said in early September on X.
The northern border poses different challenges and risks than the southern one, both for migrants and for border security officials. The terrain is vast and rugged, the weather is harsh and unpredictable, and the surveillance and detection capabilities are limited. What’s more, the cooperation and coordination between the US and Canadian authorities are not always smooth or consistent, given the diverging approaches to immigration and asylum issues adopted by the two countries.
The growing phenomenon of illegal entry from Canada is swamped by the onslaught of news that covers the southern border, and it remains largely obscure to the general public while the outcry about the “invasion” at the southern border causes bitter, loud, and persistent anger.
Officer Waikel, part of the patrol that apprehended the 5 in the incident of the raft crossing at Niagara Falls, makes an urgent plea to the public, “If people see something suspicious along the border, whether it’s a raft, small boat, in a weird hour of the night, call us, let us know, because I really need the people to help us.”
