On Feb. 26, two Turkish nationals were apprehended while trying to illegally cross into New Hampshire from Canada.
Three days later, preliminary numbers from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) showed total illegal crossings into the U.S. plunged to an all-time low in February.
The immediate success of President Donald Trump’s handling of the border is a brutal repudiation of President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies in Congress.
Just 8,450 encounters with illegal migrants were reported at the southwest border in February, compared to 189,913 in February 2024. In fact, there were single days during the Biden administration when more than 10,000 migrant encounters reported.
According to CBS News, the February number could still be revised, but even so, it’s a drastic decline in illegal crossings.
“Over the past 25 years, the only time monthly apprehensions came close to the level recorded in February was in April 2017, when Border Patrol apprehended 11,000 migrants at the southwest border,” the news outlet reports.
Meanwhile, the two Turkish men arrested Wednesday reflect a surge of illegal crossings at the U.S. northern border on Biden’s watch as well.
Serif Alihan, 33, and Mustafa Kaya, 32, both appeared in federal court Friday, charged with illegal entry. According to a statement from the New Hampshire U.S. Attorney’s office, “a Beecher Falls Border Patrol Agent encountered Alihan and Kaya near Hall Stream. The two men were covered in snow and their clothes were wet.”
The agent was able to follow the men’s tracks through the snow, which showed they began their trek on the northern side of the border.
According to CBP data, in 2023, nearly 19,000 Turkish people crossed into the U.S. illegally, mostly via the southwest border. However, “encounters at the northern border in FY2024 increased more than 600 percent compared to FY2021,” according to data released by the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee.
In 2023, a record number of people on the terror watchlist were caught crossing the U.S. border, most of them — 484 out of 653 total — at the northern border. That northern border number was a 52 percent jump from the year before.
Granite State Democrats have been vocal critics of the Northern Border Alliance Task Force program begun by Gov. Chris Sununu in 2023 and supported by fellow Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte today. But the shooting death of a Border Patrol agent in the Swanton Sector last month, the recent sentencing of a drug-dealing illegal immigrant in Portsmouth, and the nonstop stories of violent illegal aliens arrested across the state line in Massachusetts make the case, Republicans say, for funding the task force.
The arrest of two Turkish nationals will add to Ayotte’s argument, too.
Ayotte’s budget includes $600,000 for the alliance, however, less than half the $1.4 million Sununu spent.
“Our budget continues funding for the successful Northern Border Alliance. I’ve heard directly from law enforcement in the North Country, our federal partners, members of our Coös County delegation, and residents,” Ayotte said after releasing her budget plan.
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced last week that another border security tool is coming back: The border wall.
Democrats, including U.S. Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, voted to block efforts to build more border wall during Trump’s first term. Once Biden took office, he stopped some wall construction that had already been paid for.
Now, Leavitt says, the wall is going to be finished.
“The wall is an incredible deterrent factor for illegal migrant caravans. The president is committed to the continuation of the construction of the wall,” Leavitt said.
“The previous administration actually sold off the resources that the Trump administration secured to build the wall, and that’s an egregious misuse of the American taxpayers’ money,” she added.
“They just let those resources rot on the southern border. They actually sold them for pennies on the dollar. So this administration — DHS and ICE and Customs and Border Patrol and (Border Czar) Tom Holman and all of the great people who are working on this effort are committed to continuing the construction of President Trump’s border wall.”
