This month, Townhall reported how the Swanton Sector of the United States border that connects Vermont to Quebec has seen more apprehensions in the last fiscal year than the previous 13 years combined.
Additionally, border crossings between Quebec and New York, Michigan and Ontario, and Washington and British Columbia have increased in recent years.
As a result, the Biden administration unveiled a plan to expedite the processing of illegal aliens at the U.S.-Canada border in response to an uptick of crossings. This involved two changes to how the United States processes illegal immigrants under a “Safe Third Country” agreement with Canada.
This week, NPR reported that illegal immigrants from India are driving the surge of border crossings at the northern border (via NPR):
So far this year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have had nearly 20,000 encounters with migrants between ports of entry on the northern border.
That’s a 95% increase from last year.
It’s not entirely clear what’s driving this increase, but nearly 60% of those encounters were with Indian nationals.
NPR reported that Indian illegal immigrants are fleeing violent, government oppression, and organized crime.
“For some of the Indian families (the motivation) has definitely been economic opportunity, reunification with family,” Pablo Bose, director of the Global and Regional Studies Program at the University of Vermont, told the outlet.
Last year, Townhall reported how a record number of illegal immigrants that crossed the southern border in previous year came from India, according to figures released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
At the time, around 42,000 Indians were intercepted at the southern border in the past year. And, over 1,600 have crossed from America’s northern border, according to the report.