Agents at the US northern border have been added to the crossing spike

Federal authorities have added 25 border patrol agents to a section of the northeastern US border with Quebec in response to an increase in illegal crossings.

The team, which began Monday, will help prevent and disrupt human smuggling operations in sectors that include border areas in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and upstate New York, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said in a statement. .

“While the number of apprehensions is lower than other areas with irregular migration flows, the apprehension in the Swanton sector constitutes a major change in the area,” the spokesman said.

A Mexican man who entered Vermont illegally from Canada has died last month Highlight the spike in illegal crossings Along the border between Quebec and parts of New England, officials say. It marked the first death in recent memory of someone illegally crossing the area.

Figures from US Customs and Border Protection show agents in the sector arrested 1,513 illegal border crossers between October 2022 and January 31, 2023, up from 160 during the same period the previous year. But the total number of apprehensions along the entire northern border this fiscal year, 2,227, is a small fraction of the 762,383 apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border during the same period.