The number of illegal migrants crossing the U.S.-Canadian border have more than doubled in the first seven months of fiscal year 2023 compared to the entire fiscal year of 2022. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Border Patrol agents recorded 4,827 migrant encounters between October 2022 and April 2023 at the northern border, compared to 2,238 in all of fiscal year 2022. On March 24 President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau brokered an agreement, “Safe Third Country,” which expels illegal immigrants to make their asylum claims in the first country of their arrival. Northern border resident Dan Cowan said, “Everybody in this area is on edge. We don’t have the holding capacity for Border Patrol or U.S. Customs. What are they gonna do with these people when they’re getting here? They’re not deporting them.”
