The Biden-Harris administration, in an attempt to deflect blame for the unprecedented immigration crisis it has created and overseen for the past several years, frequently highlights the reduced number of crossings at the southern border. Meanwhile, both the administration and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign seem to deliberately ignore the escalating situation at the U.S.-Canadian border.
A closer look at the northern numbers
Customs and Border Protection data reveals that the northern border experienced just over 27,000 encounters in fiscal year 2021. By 2024, this number had surged by 637%, reaching nearly 199,000 encounters.
The Swanton Sector, covering 24,000 square miles and including Vermont, along with several counties in New York and New Hampshire, has become by far the most heavily trafficked section of the U.S.-Canadian border.
In fiscal year 2024, Border Patrol agents manning the Swanton Sector encountered more than 19,000 individuals. For comparison, the next busiest northern sector, Blaine — which services Alaska, Oregon, and half of Washington — reported fewer than 2,500 encounters over the same period.
While the number of encounters impacting the northern border’s most heavily trafficked sector may appear inconsequential compared to the staggering reports from its southern border counterparts, the stats reveal a terrifying trend.
Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia stated in an early October post on X, “Border Patrol Agents in Swanton Sector have apprehended more than 19,222 subjects from 97 different countries since October 1, 2023, which is more than its last 17 fiscal years combined.”
Executive order fallacy: Statistical smoke and mirrors
Despite this alarming data, the Biden-Harris administration continues to boast about reductions in southern border encounters. Yet these slightly lower figures remain astronomically high compared to those under previous administrations.
The administration’s numerous so-called “lawful pathways” have hidden the true extent of the immigration crisis. While the number of illegal crossings — defined as individuals attempting to cross the border between ports of entry — has decreased, the overall number of foreign nationals entering the country has been skyrocketing under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ leadership.
The current administration has repeatedly credited Biden’s June executive order, 89 FR 48487 — Securing the Border, for the reduction in illegal crossings over the second half of 2024. From June to September, encounters at the southern border dropped roughly 22%.
‘We still are giving those families that are crossing with their vehicle Notice to Appears, and they took us on the chase.’
The administration claims that the executive action grants the federal government the authority to shut down the border once daily encounters reach 2,500 for seven consecutive days.
However, it includes numerous exceptions, such as expediting the entry process for foreign nationals who used Customs and Border Protection’s CBP One application to schedule an appointment at a port of entry to request asylum.
Moreover, the executive order applies exclusively to the southern border and therefore has no effect on reducing the escalating encounters at the northern border.
Border Patrol agent reveals northern border chaos
Zachary Apotheker, a Border Patrol agent who was previously stationed at the southern border before transferring to the Swanton Sector, told Blaze News, “We’re very slammed up here.”
“I’ve actually worked harder on the northern border than we have down south because, per capita, we have less agents to do so much work,” he said.
“We have a lot of drive-throughs up here, which means people will physically take a vehicle and drive from Canada into America, which should be a massive crime. You’re not just crossing; now you’re taking a vehicle across. You’re driving past an international boundary,” Apotheker explained. “If it’s a family, sometimes they’ve taken us on chases.”
Apotheker recounted an incident in which a vehicle sped past him at 70 miles per hour on a dirt road, driving through the international boundary. He started to pursue but was called off the chase.
“Later on, someone found the vehicle. It was a family,” Apotheker continued. “We still are giving those families that are crossing with their vehicle Notice to Appears, and they took us on the chase. And that’s happened more than once.”
A Notice to Appear, or Form I-862, is given to noncitizens entering the country, instructing them to appear before an immigration judge. Although United States Citizenship and Immigration Services states that this document is “the first step in starting removal proceedings against” the individual, the overwhelmed immigration system means noncitizens receive court dates years in the future, effectively allowing them to stay in the U.S. until their court date.
‘Detaining all individuals without identification … may hamper DHS’ ability to prioritize detention for individuals identified as a possible national security or public safety risk.’
Apotheker told Blaze News, “And the kicker is, if they bring a rental, we tow the rental to the yard. We don’t seize rental vehicles. We tow the rental vehicle. They go back after we release them into the country, and they get the rental back.”
He stated that those illegally crossing the border are “looking at us as a joke.”
“There’s no incentive to stop,” he said. “We have the legal authority to do our job and punish these people, but we’re not allowed to do so.”
“It’s just a game to them,” he added, referring to the illegal border crossers.
Terror watch-list encounters
The Department of Homeland Security’s 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment, published in early October, acknowledged that northern border encounters “continue to increase.”
Through July of fiscal year 2024, CBP reported 283 individuals on the terrorist watch list who attempted to enter the U.S. via the northern border, according to the report. This number was slightly down from the 375 encounters in the previous year over the same time frame.
“In contrast to the U.S.-Mexico border, many watch-list encounters along the U.S.-Canada border occur at ports of entry, and the vast majority of these individuals have legal status in Canada,” the DHS report read.
The agency anticipates that terrorists “will continue their efforts to exploit migration flows and the complex border security environment to enter the United States.”
The DHS’ assessment omitted mention of concerning findings from a September DHS Office of Inspector General report, which discovered that agencies, including CBP, had released noncitizens into the U.S. without identification. When individuals fail to provide identification, it is more challenging for federal officials to determine whether they are on the terrorist watch list.
‘There is also no consistency on what documentation they are saying young people need.’
“If noncitizens do not have identification such as an unexpired visa, unexpired passport, re-entry permit, border crossing identification card, or document of identity and nationality, immigration officers may deny their admission and subject them to removal from the United States without further hearing or review,” the IG report explained. “However, if noncitizens without identification indicate they either intend to apply for asylum or express a fear of persecution in their home country, an immigration officer will refer them for a credible fear interview. If asylum officers determine those claims are credible, these noncitizens may be released into the country to await further hearings or reviews of their claims to admission.”
The report concluded that neither CBP nor Immigration and Customs Enforcement “could determine how many of the millions of noncitizens seeking entry in the United States each year entered without identification and whose self-reported biographic information was accepted.”
These federal law enforcement agencies are not required to record how many noncitizens present identification documents.
The OIG provided the DHS with three recommendations as part of the report’s findings. The DHS rejected all three.
One of the recommendations, directed at CBP, advised the agency to “conduct a comprehensive analysis of the risks associated with releasing noncitizens into the country without identification and develop and implement policies and procedures to mitigate those risks.”
The DHS responded with a non-concurrence, arguing, “Although CBP acknowledges the broad intent of the recommendation, mitigating potential risks associated with releasing noncitizens into the country without identification requires broadly detaining noncitizens, including those noncitizens lacking documentation, for a time exceeding ‘short-term’ detention. … Further, detaining all individuals without identification would seriously risk DHS exceeding its detention capacity, and may hamper DHS’ ability to prioritize detention for individuals identified as a possible national security or public safety risk.”
To this, the OIG countered that without the ability to confirm an individual’s identity, CBP “faces challenges in identifying noncitizens who pose a national security or public safety risk.”
Trusting words over evidence
“We’re taking people’s word,” Apotheker told Blaze News. “The adults may not show up with documents, but then the children may not show up with documents, or maybe false documents. So we’re just taking their word that this child is now this person’s child.”
“We really can’t definitely say, and we can’t track them,” he continued. “A lot of these countries, we don’t have their criminal history.”
‘If we do give them an expedited removal … they still may be granted asylum.’
Apotheker detailed that while adults crossing the border undergo fingerprinting, iris scans, and DNA swabs and are photographed, such biometric data is not gathered for children under 14 years old.
Unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. are handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which seeks to place these children with sponsors in the U.S.
“Maybe a relative’s house. How do we even know that it’s the relative’s house, and then who’s following up on it?” Apotheker questioned.
Records released in October revealed that nearly 7,000 unaccompanied children arrive in New York City each year, the New York Post reported. During a city council hearing, experts noted a 60% rise in unaccompanied minors in the city over the last four years.
Jamie Powlovich, a supervisor at the Coalition for the Homeless, informed city lawmakers, “We’ve also seen young people whose passports were falsified so that they could flee.”
“But all their other documents or certificates from their home country to indicate that they are in fact minors and then [the city Administration for Children’s Services] does not take them,” Powlovich said. “There is also no consistency on what documentation they are saying young people need.”
The credible fear loophole and asylum case outcomes
In some circumstances, single adults crossing the border are subject to “expedited removal,” a process intended to swiftly remove them from the country. Apotheker indicated that is not always the case.
“We allow them a credible fear hearing, which is up to an asylum officer to clear,” he told Blaze News. “If we do give them an expedited removal, we’re going to hold them or have them at a holding facility up until the point they have a credible fear hearing. And they still may be granted asylum.”
According to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, if a foreign national “indicate[s] an intention to apply for asylum, express[es] a fear of persecution or torture, or express[es] a fear of return to your country,” he “must be referred to an asylum officer for an interview to determine whether you have a credible fear of persecution or torture.”
Recent data from USCIS, spanning October 2023 to October 15, 2024, shows that out of over 170,000 credible fear cases, fear was not established in approximately 32% of them.
Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse found that in fiscal year 2024, immigration judges denied asylum in 56% of the cases, granted it in 42%, and provided another form of relief in just 2% of cases.
Immigration courts are grappling with a backlog exceeding 1.1 million asylum cases in fiscal year 2024, with foreign nationals waiting more than 1,400 days — almost four years — before their asylum hearing dates.
While many of the Biden-Harris administration’s destructive policies that have led to the open-border crisis can quickly be reversed by a new administration committed to national security, the enormous backlog in immigration courts will likely pose significant challenges well beyond Biden’s tenure in the White House.
CBP did not respond to a request for comment.
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