Illegal Crossings In NH Border Region Hit Record High In April

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

More bad news for border security — and New Hampshire Democrats hoping the issue will go away by Election Day: Illegal crossings in the border region that includes the Granite State hit a new record in April.

“Another record-breaking milestone in northern border history!” reports Chief U.S. Border Patrol Agent Robert Garcia, who oversees the Swanton Sector.

“Swanton Sector continues to encounter an unprecedented number of undocumented migrants, with well over 1,400 apprehensions in the month of April, surpassing the total number of apprehensions of FY 21 and FY 22 combined.”

And, Garcia adds, “In the week of Aril 28th – May 4th [alone], we apprehended 492 undocumented migrants transcending the total number of apprehensions for all FY21.”

The Swanton Sector includes the Vermont border, as well as Clinton, Essex, Franklin, St. Lawrence and Herkimer counties in New York; and Coos, Grafton and Carroll counties in New Hampshire.

Increased illegal immigration from Canada to the U.S. is not news.

The U.S. Border Patrol reported last September that “apprehensions have topped 6,700 in less than one year—surpassing 11 prior years combined.”

The Border Patrol at the time also reported having caught more than 170 “known or suspected terrorists illegally entering the United States from Mexico or Canada over the previous 12 months, finishing out the government’s fiscal year with the highest number in national history.”

And CBP data show that in fiscal years 2022 and 2023, encounters with people in the Terror Screening Data Set — aka the “Terror Watch List” — have been five to six times higher at the border with Canada than with Mexico.

Still, New Hampshire Democrats in Concord and in Washington, D.C. have uniformly opposed state efforts to shore up the northern border. When Gov. Chris Sununu announced the Northern Border Alliance Task Force last October, Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington opposed both the project and its $1.4 million price tag.

Former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig has declined to respond to questions about the Northern Border Alliance Task Force or what state policies — if any — she would enact to address the illegal immigration issue.

Meanwhile, the state Democratic Party continues to insist that the entire issue of illegal immigration and border security is a political stunt inspired by racism. Granite State Democrats have compared support for increased immigration enforcement to Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews, and state party chair Ray Buckley calls it “fascist fearmongering” and “thinly-veiled racism.”

Both GOP candidates for governor — former U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte and former state Senate President Chuck Morse — have said they will continue the Northern Border Alliance Task Force. And unlike their Democratic counterparts, they both oppose allowing sanctuary policies in the Granite State.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.