Rep. Elise Stefanik Demands Biden Secure Northern Border amid 846% Increase in Illegal Crossings

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) demanded President Joe Biden secure a sector of the border that has experienced an 846 percent increase in illegal crossings since October.

According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Swanton border sector in New York state, which is in Stefanik’s district, has been overrun by an approximate 846 percent increase in encounters and apprehensions from October 1 to January 31, compared to the same period in fiscal year (FY) 2022. “FY23’s total apprehensions and encounters have already surpassed FY22 and FY21 combined,” the CBP stated February 13.

As co-chair of the northern border caucus, Stefanik said the CBP report is an acknowledgment of the invasion, which she said is “leaving security openings” on the border with Canada. “Joe Biden has brought his Southern Border crisis to New York State, and now the Biden Administration finally admits the Northern Border across my district is not secure,” Stefanik said in a statement.

“From the beginning, I have stood up for our border patrol and warned against how Joe Biden’s Southern Border crisis has forced border patrol agents in my district into no-notice deployments, weakening morale and leaving security openings at the Northern Border,” she said. “But it has taken months for him to admit his crisis at the Northern Border.”

Stefanik noted Biden is refusing to address the invasion while encouraging illegal migrants to arrive in New York state, a haven for illegal aliens under Democrat rule:

Instead of addressing this crisis, Joe Biden has passed the buck and shipped his crisis to New York State with the assist from Kathy Hochul and Eric Adams, who both support policies to incentivize illegal immigrants to continue to pour into New York. Our taxpayers, border patrol agents, and Upstate communities are unfairly bearing the brunt of this crisis. We must secure our border and support our border patrol agents.

In January, Stefanik raised concerns about dozens of immigrants recently discovered in the small upstate New York community of Jamestown reportedly flown from Texas across the United States to New York state in chartered jets.

“The charter flights originate in Texas, where the ongoing border crisis has overwhelmed local immigration officials, and have been underway since at least August,” the New York Post reported:

Westchester County cops stood by as the passengers — whose flights arrived at 10:49 p.m. Wednesday and 9:52 p.m. Friday — got off and piled into buses.

Some of them were later seen meeting up with relatives or sponsors in New Jersey, or being dropped off at a residential facility on Long Island.

A Post analysis of online flight-tracking data suggests that around 2,000 of the underage migrants have arrived at the airport outside White Plains on 21 flights since Aug. 8.

As a federal official, Stefanik has called out New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ use of taxpayer funds to transport illegal migrants from New York City to Canada via New York’s 21st District.

“New Yorkers deserve answers for why their taxpayer dollars are being spent to help illegal immigrants violate their parole and escape the law,” she said.

“Through these taxpayer-funded bus rides, we must know how many of these illegal immigrants are escaping into upstate New York communities and where they are resettling.”

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.