Illegal Crossing Increases in the US-Canada Border

May 24, 2019 por Isolda Barrera

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In recent months there have been reports of an increase of illegal crossings in the US-Canada border. In the past years, numbers have shown how there is a significant growth on the crossing of illegal immigrants going from Canada to the US:

Illegal Crossings 2016 – 2283 2017 – 3027 2018 – 4816

In 2018 of those 4,816 cases only 22% were apprehended after entering into US soil, only to try and go further south by means of taxi, bus or hitchhiking. In just a recent case that was documented a couple of days ago, 3 individuals of Mexican nationality, flew in to Canada and from there proceeded to cross to the US illegally, where they were later met by a hired driver that would take them to different destinations, all 3 individuals were caught and the hired driver faces charges.

The areas of Vermont, Washington, New York and New Hampshire have been the ones most affected by this increase of crossings. In Spokane, Washington, those numbers have been going up since 2017, where they caught 208 people trying to cross illegally and in 2018, they caught 347 from where 282 of them were of Mexican nationality.

People from various part of the world have been apprehended crossing the border, in recent years they have had people come from up to 42 countries, with some of the top 5 nationalities being Indian, Guatemalan, Mexican, Romanian and Canadian. Where 70% of those cases are people looking from asylum in the US.

Some say that the increase of illegal crossings in the northern border is an effect due to the current crisis that is being faced in the southern border. And although numbers still don’t compare, one of the disadvantages that the northern border encounters is the lack of physical barriers as well as reduced force of border agents to protect it, leaving it open for smuggling rings and those looking to find a new life.

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