Former Trump Official cites spike in northern border crossings

(Fargo, ND) -- Tom Homan, a former Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)  under the Trump administration between January 30th, 2017 and June 29th, 2018, spoke about New Hampshire after Trump declared victory after the primary election. He joined The Flag's What's On Your Mind to talk about border security, and also gave more details on Northern Border crossings.

The former Acting Director said northern border crossings were up by 600%, and up by 800% in some crossings. According to data collected by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, fiscal year 2021 saw 27,180 encounters along the northern border. That number has increased to 189,402 encounters in 2023 according to the same agency, an 85.6% increase over a three year period. 

'HS reports that the terrorist threat on the northern border is higher, given the large expanse of area with limited law enforcement coverage," said a report by the Government Accountability Office written in 2008. A separate report written in 2019 also cited staffing and resource allocation challenges along the northern border, "U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) identified staffing and resource challenges affecting its enforcement activities along the U.S.-Canada (northern) border and actions to address them, but faces competing priorities...This is primarily because CBP’s priority is to secure the U.S.-Mexico (southwest) border."