By Brendan Scanland
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the past year, the number of migrant encounters at the Northern border has roughly doubled over the past year.
Officials reported more than 190,000 encounters last year and illegal migrant apprehensions increased more than 240% from 2022 to 2023.
“Communities along our Northern border simply aren’t equipped to handle this level of migration,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
Criminal organizations are also taking advantage of the massive border for drug and human smuggling operations.
“There’s a human smuggling industry flourishing along our Northern border,” said Gillibrand. “Officials suspect that many of the smugglers are linked to Mexican cartels and US based organized crime. At the same time, while they smuggle migrants south, they are trafficking guns and drugs from the United States into Canada,” she added.
Now, lawmakers, including Gillibrand, want to reassess the gameplan along the 5,525-mile land-and-maritime border spanning across 13 states.
“We need a better strategy,” said Gillibrand.
The Senate’s bipartisan Northern Border Security Enhancement and Review Act would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take a deeper look at the current situation and update its Northern Border Strategy regularly. The current strategy hasn’t been updated since 2018.
Specifically, the legislation seeks to:
- Require a Northern Border Threat Analysis to be completed every three years;
- Require that the analysis include an assessment of recent changes in the number and demographics of apprehensions at the northern border;
- Require that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Northern Border Strategy be updated within 90 days of the completion of the threat analysis, and have DHS brief Congress within 30 days.
“This proactive approach will provide us with the data and insights necessary to address the increasing apprehensions along the Northern border and combat illegal drug and weapons trafficking,” said Gillibrand. “Until we update our Northern border strategy, we will continue to be unprepared and unequipped to address this growing migrant crisis.”
Republicans leading the legislative effort in the House say the bill is necessary because of failed border policies.
“It’s a problem that has been largely overlooked with so much chaos at the Southern border,” said Congressman Nick Langworthy (R-NY), who introduced the Northern Border Security Enhancement and Review Act in the House in June.
Langworthy says the crisis has received little attention from the current administration.
“These men and women in a border patrol, they are really on the front lines of this and they’ve been understaffed. The Biden administration, along with Harris, has left them completely unsupported. They have inadequate resources to handle what is a really escalating situation,” said Langworthy. “We need to work to make sure that we are vigilantly watching that Northern border so we don’t end up in the same places that we are on the Southern border.”
According to Langworthy, through the first seven months of Fiscal Year 2024:
- 9,460 individuals have been apprehended at the Northern border, compared to 4,849 at the same time in FY23.
- 143 individuals on the Known or Suspected Terrorist list have been apprehended, almost double the number apprehended on the Southern Border.
- 1,274 pounds of Fentanyl has been seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations, enough to kill over 270 million Americans.
“It’s time to give the Northern border the attention it deserves and do what needs to be done to keep vulnerable people in our Northern border communities safe,” said Gillibrand.
The Senate version of the bill advanced through the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday afternoon.
