Staff Reports
As Republican primary voters in New Hampshire made their way to the polls, the GOP candidates and politicians were making sure the voters kept one thing in mind – the border. But not just any border, no. We’re talking about threats and dangers coming from the Canadian border, not the southern one.
Threats at Canadian border top Trump, Haley talking points ahead of NH primary https://t.co/TcY4ljmU6I
— Anna Giaritelli (@Anna_Giaritelli) January 24, 2024
Former President Donald Trump didn’t hold back when he declared that the southern border was nothing compared to the northern one. “The southern border is like nobody has ever seen, but the northern border is bad too,” he said as he strolled into a polling station in Londonderry. “I don’t think any country, a third-world country, never had a border like this.”
Nikki Haley, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Trump’s main rival in the primary, took her rhetoric up a notch as she emphasized the need to put physical barriers across the entire 4,000-mile U.S.-Canada border. “I don’t just want a border wall — we’ve got to do a whole lot more than that. That’s what will close off the northern and the southern borders,” she declared to her campaign event attendees.
But wait, it doesn’t stop there. Haley made it clear that the United States would “do whatever it takes to keep people out” and that means walls and whatever kind of Border Patrol necessary at both borders.
And let’s not forget about the now departed GOP candidate, Gov. Ron DeSantis, who made sure to promise the voters that he’d be pouring more money into securing the northern border.
The growing concerns about the northern border come at a time when over 8 million people have been encountered by federal law enforcement at the southern border in the last three years, making it the most traffic ever seen in history. In comparison, Border Patrol agents apprehended 2.05 million people at the southern border in the fiscal year of 2023, compared to only 10,021 at the northern border. That’s a whopping 11 times more people coming in from the south!
To make matters even more alarming, in just the past two months, Swanton Sector Border Patrol Agents have apprehended 1,850 individuals from 43 different countries, exceeding the total apprehensions in the previous two fiscal years combined. This is no laughing matter!
Early polling on Tuesday revealed that immigration was the primary concern for New Hampshire GOP voters. Haley boldly claimed during a CNN town hall event that more terrorists were being arrested at the northern border than at the southern one. And you know what? She’s right! Federal data confirmed that across the southern border, 169 immigrants were caught trying to enter, while there were only three similar incidents at the northern border.
But hold up, at the ports of entry, the situation was different. Customs officers at the northern border apprehended 484 terrorist watch-listed individuals, compared to 80 down south. So, you see, there’s a lot going on here and it’s not looking good!
And let’s give a shoutout to Gov. Chris Sununu, the most vocal state leader in New England on the matter of border security. He initiated a major increase in the number of state law enforcement patrols around the Canadian border. Sununu stated, “The vast majority of border crossings come from the southern border, but the majority of border crossings of folks on the terrorist watch list come from the northern border.”
The cherry on top? A RealClearPolitics polling average showed that voters were overwhelmingly dissatisfied with Biden’s approach to securing either border, disapproving of his handling of immigration issues by a rate of 2 to 1. It’s clear that something needs to change, and fast!
