Northern border is wide open and people are funneling across

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Jennie Taer
Daily Caller News Foundation

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CHAMPLAIN, New York — Migrants are crossing the northern border both into the U.S. and into Canada illegally, causing chaos on both the Canadian and American sides, with the latter side reeling from the costs.

Border Patrol encountered a nearly 900% surge of migrants into the U.S. in the Swanton sector—which spans parts of New York and Vermont—in January, when agents recorded 367 apprehensions. Migrants are also crossing illegally into Canada in droves along Roxham Road in Champlain, New York, where taxis with “frontera,” or “border” written in Spanish, on them, bring people back and forth for hours every day.

The Daily Caller News Foundation rode in several of the migrant-packed taxis, which carried many who illegally crossed the southern border and some who fraudulently claimed they were tourists to fly from the Middle East. The taxis make roughly $40 to $50 a person, with some taking advantage of the situation and gouging the price to $80 to $100 a person.

The kids often ride for free.

The passengers were Egyptian, Colombian, Venezuelan, Nigerian, Turkish, Haitian, Pakistani and Afghan, all of them seeking asylum.

Daily Caller News Foundation//Jennie Taer

Some of the migrants wanted to leave the U.S. because it wasn’t safe enough for them and because they believed President Joe Biden was going to close the borders, making it more difficult for them to stay. Some of the migrants that crossed the southern border explained that they found the process to go to court and pay a lawyer as too lengthy and expensive.

Others evaded Border Patrol apprehension down south and had no court dates. There were 600,000 illegal migrants who evaded Border Patrol arrest in fiscal year 2022, according to Fox News.

Some of the migrants who crossed the southern border illegally are given cell phones that are used to track their location, but, according to the taxi drivers, many of the phones are left behind in the cabs to Roxham Road, which is a popular crossing in New York where Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are there to receive them, the DCNF has learned.

Canada provides refugee interviews to those who cross illegally and conducts security checks before they are released “most of the time,” In most case.” to the Canadian government’s website. If they’re not eligible for refugee status, they will be released with a court date.

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“Canada has more protection. There is a lot of violence towards women here [U.S.],” Jenny, an illegal migrant from Venezuela told the DCNF as she sat in a taxi waiting for it to load up migrants heading north, told the DCNF.

“I have heard he [President Biden] wants to lower opportunities for migrants and those arriving from other countries. That is why I decided to go to Canada,” Miguel, an illegal migrant from Colombia told the DCNF as he waited in the same taxi.

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The local community in Champlain, New York, sees problems with the illegal migrant traffic going both ways. It’s only gotten worse with the buses Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams has sent to Plattsburgh, New York.

“These areas that have put themselves up as sanctuary cities, sanctuary states that have asked people to move along, I think is very disingenuous,” Clinton County, New York, Legislator Calvin Castine told the DCNF.

“Obviously, they’re taking some people, but I think putting themselves up as a city with 8.5 million people and then putting them on a bus and sending them to Clinton County with a 75,000 population … eventually ending up here in Champlain with a 5,500 population trying to cross the border, I think that they’re being a little bit disingenuous,” he added.

The Border agents on the U.S. side are dealing with a surge in migrants coming from places like Mexico, for example, where they can easily fly to Canada and then cross. Mexicans are not required to possess a visa to travel to Canada, just an electronic travel authorization, which costs seven Canadian dollars.

“Agents become overwhelmed with the amount of work that they have to do,” President of the National Border Patrol Council for the Swanton sector Sean Walsh told the DCNF, adding “The priority is the southern border so the majority of the resources are diverted [there].”

Tyson Dumas, a local landowner along the Canadian border in Mooers, New York, has migrants crossing illegally into the U.S. from Canada on his land.

“It hasn’t stopped even through the cold and the snow,” Dumas told the DCNF.

“I also believe that landowners along the border should get some sort of tax break. We pay crazy taxes and all of this is going on on our land,” he added.

Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, whose district is situated along the northern border, believes the blame for the influx lies on both Biden and the governments of New York State and the city, she told the DCNF.

“Joe Biden has left our Northern Border completely exposed due to his failure to secure the Southern Border and forcing our Northern Border patrol to deploy to fight his crisis on the Southern Border. This influx of illegals to New York State has been exacerbated by NYC Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul’s Far Left policies incentivizing illegal immigration, including handing out taxpayer-funded bus tickets to ship illegal immigrants right through my district over the Northern Border,” Stefanik told the DCNF.

“This has allowed illegal immigrants to pour across Upstate New York, which burdens and risks overwhelming the schools, housing, and infrastructure of many of our rural communities. The Biden Administration must address this crisis, as I have been calling on them to do for two years, by securing our borders and supporting our border patrol,” Stefanik said.