The Swanton sector of the U.S.-Canada border, which includes New Hampshire, has seen more illegal immigrant apprehensions in the last fiscal year than in the previous 17 years combined.
It’s a shocking statistic from the U.S. Border Patrol that Republicans like Kelly Ayotte say proves the need for state action, including the Northern Border Alliance and ending sanctuary policies.
More than 19,000 illegal immigrants have been apprehended in the sector, officials said last week, coming from 97 different nations.
Meanwhile, former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, the Democratic candidate for governor, is again refusing to answer direct questions about how she would address the northern border problem or whether she has abandoned her support for sanctuary city policies.
Craig’s GOP opponent, former U.S. Sen. Ayotte, told NHJournal on Monday that Craig “would bring Massachusetts’ sanctuary policies and billion-dollar illegal immigrant crisis to New Hampshire,” citing that state’s projected $1 billion annual illegal immigrant shelter price tag.
“These numbers show that’s the last thing we need in our state,” Ayotte said. “As governor, I’ll ensure law enforcement along our northern border have the tools and systems they need to protect our communities, and we will ban sanctuary cities and taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal immigrants in New Hampshire.”
While the 19,000 figure is shocking, Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies says the real number is likely higher since the “gotaway” numbers for illegal Swanton crossings aren’t public.
“On the southern border, there is a system of sensors and cameras that they use to tabulate the getaways, and the local law enforcement partners participate in analyzing the data, so it gets out,” Vaughan told NHJournal. “They do use surveillance on the northern border, but I have never seen it published.
“There are going to be some gotaways — no question — but it’s hard to say how many. We have to assume that if the number of apprehensions is going up, then so is the number of gotaways.”
Meanwhile, Gov. Chris Sununu’s formation last October of a new $1.4 million task force allowing local law enforcement to help with security along the northern New Hampshire border continues to face opposition from Granite State Democrats. They claimed in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that there is no “crisis” at the northern border.
Fast-forward to this past August when New Hampshire Democrats were still trying to kill the program. On Aug. 1, the American Civil Liberties Union’s New Hampshire chapter called on the state legislature to “reallocate” the funding and slammed the program for addressing “a truly non-existent border issue.”
“We continue to advocate that these funds, which stand at $1.4 million, be reallocated to things that actually help Granite Staters and that the state stop the unnecessary and harmful expansion of using local law enforcement for immigration purposes,” ACLU of New Hampshire policy director Amanda Azad said in a statement.
Azad and others point to federal data the organization obtained showing zero encounters in New Hampshire between January and May.
New Hampshire Safety Commissioner Robert Quinn claimed, however, in his Northern Border Alliance (NBA) progress report to Sununu and other officials that “federal partners confirmed that the amplified presence of law enforcement/NBA participants has had a deterrent effect on federal violations.”
Sununu said the NBA progress report “shows that illegal crossings can be prevented.”
“I hope other states and the Biden-Harris administration will take note that our success is proof that border security works,” the governor added.
Craig did not respond to NHJournal’s question of whether she’d support continued NBA funding if elected governor.
Meanwhile, a series of arrests made last month by border patrol agents stationed at a port-of-entry in Pittsburg may have also poked a hole in the ACLU of NH’s narrative of the northern border issue being “non-existent.”
On Sept. 10, New Hampshire U.S. District Attorney Jane E. Young announced the arrests of two Guatemalan nationals on human smuggling-related charges.
According to federal court documents, “remote surveillance equipment detected and captured images of a male walking in a remote and undeveloped area, just south of the Pittsburg Port of Entry in the northernmost part of New Hampshire near the United States/Canadian International Border.”
“Shortly thereafter, a responding Border Patrol Agent stopped a southbound vehicle after observing a male in the passenger seat who was wearing dark clothing like that of the individual who was captured on the surveillance images.”
Earlier that month, a complaint filed with federal Justice Department officials led to the arrest of a Pakistani national caught in Quebec just miles away from the New York border who allegedly planned to shoot up a Brooklyn Jewish community center on or about Oct. 7, the day marking Hamas’s one-year anniversary of the worst mass-slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, allegedly used three different cars during his drive from Toronto in an effort to elude authorities before being caught in Ormstown, Quebec. Undercover agents claim Khan had bragged in a series of communications that “New York is perfect to target Jews” and “if we succeed with our plan this would be the largest attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.”
Out of the 19,200-plus Swanton Sector apprehensions reported by federal border control officials, approximately 321 — including Khan — have been classified as terror-related.
“There is no reason to think that they are catching them all, since they never have,” Vaughan said about illegal border crossings overall.
