The U.S.-Canada border has seen a large influx of illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S. According to border officials, the number of crossings has increased by close to 10 times in the last five months, at a time when the weather in the area could cause crossers to freeze to death.
This year, from Oct. 1 to Feb. 28 there were close to 2,000 migrants who crossed the border between Canada and New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York south through the forests. By comparison during the same period last year, the number of crossings was around 200. The migrants are mainly from Mexico.
People from Mexico can travel to Canada without a visa, and from there they are able to cross the U.S.-Canada border in order to reunite with their families.
However, the harsh conditions meant that last weekend alone, Clinton County, New York, Sheriff David Favro’s team assisted Border Patrol in rescuing 39 migrants, many of whom were found with their clothes frozen to their bodies. Favro said that the number of people they are seeing has increased and that for those who are unfamiliar with the territory, it can be deadly.
He has further noted that having to perform these rescues, has been taxing on his department’s resources which were already limited when it came to covering the residents in this rural county. Clinton County has 80,000 residents and shares a 30 miles border with Quebec, a Canadian province.
Customs and Border Protection added 25 agents to the area, the Swanton Sector in order to help handle the increase in immigration, but Favro and other local officials claimed that was not enough.
