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By Matthew Impelli
Life & Trends Reporter
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Criminals are actively "exploiting" America's Northern borders, the head of a local border council sector warned on Tuesday.
"This problem continues to exist, and it continues to grow, month after month, year after year," Sean Walsh, the President of the National Border Patrol Council for the Swanton Sector, said on Fox News' America's Newsroom. "These transnational criminal organizations that have been allowed to set up shop are exploiting the Northern border in the coastal regions like we've never seen before."
"We're seeing it on both ends, the Southern border, the Northern border...we're catching these people and releasing them into the country for years and years," Walsh added.
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Walsh is the president of the National Border Patrol Council for the Swanton Sector, which encompasses nearly 300 miles of land in Northern New York, Vermont and New Hampshire.
Newsweek reached out to the National Border Patrol Council via email for further comment.
The context:
Over the past several weeks, U.S. President Joe Biden has faced extensive criticism for his handling of the nation's borders, mainly at the southern border between the United States and Mexico.
Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows a continued increase in the number of illegal migrant encounters at borders across the U.S. In December, there were 15,349 illegal migrant encounters at the northern border.
In comparison, the data shows that there were just over 7,000 total migrant encounters at the Northern border in December 2021.
What we know:
Republicans have repeatedly called on Biden to take executive action to secure the Southern borders. In response, Biden has insisted that he's done "all I can do" on border security and has urged Congress to pass a bipartisan border security bill.
The Senate recently rejected the border security bill after opposition from Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said the bill was "dead on arrival" in the House.
Views:
In a February 2 post on X, formerly Twitter, Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia of the United States Border Patrol Swanton Sector said: "Since October 1, 2023, Swanton Sector Border Patrol Agents have apprehended more than 3,100 subjects from 55 countries (more than Fiscal Years 2022, 21, 20 & 19 combined)."
Republican Representative Claudia Tenney of New York also previously warned of an influx of migrants crossing the U.S.-Canada border.
"We're very concerned about this in New York as well because 85 percent of the people on the terror watch list are coming through our northern border, which I alluded to earlier is very insecure and very concerned that we have a porous border here as well," Tenney told Fox News' Fox Report with Jon Scott last month.
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What's next:
House Republicans recently failed in their attempts to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas but many have signaled that they will vote again this week. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is expected to be returning to Congress and some Republicans believe he could help vote in favor of the impeachment efforts.
Update 2/13/24, 11:55 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information and to reflect that Newsweek reached out to the border union for comment.
Update 2/13/24, 12:12 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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