At dawn or dusk, Kristy Brow used to enjoy alone time walking in the woods on her 21-acre property in Highgate, Vermont, a small rural town near the U.S.–Canada border.
Lately, however, she’s cautious—she’s worried about potential encounters with illegal immigrants along the remote logging trail.
“I don’t go out by myself anymore—especially at night,” said Mrs. Brow, who runs a dog obedience business from her home.
“It’s unsettling. You can’t feel relaxed anymore,” she said. “You want to be safe in your own house and on your property.
“It’s getting bad. Sometimes, you see them on the interstate, looking for a ride.”
Mrs. Brow and her husband are both avid hunters and have deer stands set up on their property. Their game cameras often record illegal immigrants passing through.
The illegal immigrants travel alone or in small groups, discarding unwanted belongings as they trudge further south into Vermont, headed for destinations unknown.
“We find clothes out here. We found shoes and a bicycle. We see Border Patrol out there on snow dogs following footprints,” Mrs. Brow told The Epoch Times.
Once a place of peace and solitude, she said the woods behind her house are now a shortcut for illegal immigrants.
And it’s only gotten worse since President Joe Biden took office, she said.
In fiscal year 2023, border officials encountered 189,401 illegal and inadmissible immigrants along the U.S.–Canada border, including at the ports of entry. Of those, 10,021 were caught crossing illegally between ports of entry.
In fiscal 2021, that number was 916.
Mrs. Brow’s property falls within the Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Swanton Sector, a 295-mile stretch of largely unguarded border with Canada.
Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia wrote on social media earlier this month that border agents in his sector apprehended more illegal immigrants in fiscal year 2023 than “the prior 11 fiscal years combined.”
The Swanton Sector encompasses 24,000 square miles and includes all of Vermont and several counties in New Hampshire and New York State.
Traveling on foot in the area is especially challenging during the winter months.
Border officials have encountered illegal immigrants marching across miles of snow-covered wilderness, swamps, muddy fields, and meadows in sub-freezing temperatures.
Many succumb to the elements.
This month, eight illegal immigrants from Albania and India died while trying to cross the St. Lawrence River in New York State.
In February, a Mexican man traveling in a group near Holland, Vermont, collapsed and died after crossing illegally into the United States.
“It cannot be stressed enough: not only is it unlawful to circumvent legal means of entry into the United States, but it is extremely dangerous, particularly in adverse weather conditions, which our Swanton Sector has in incredible abundance,” Mr. Garcia said in a statement.
Border officials often use snowmobiles and tracked all-terrain vehicles to pursue illegal immigrants.
“Despite sub-freezing temperatures, Swanton Sector continues encountering family groups with young children, including infants, illegally crossing from Canada into the U.S.,” according to the CBP website.
A woman who lives in New Hampshire told The Epoch Times an illegal immigrant swam across Wallace Pond in Canaan, arriving soaking wet on her neighbor’s doorstep asking for help.
In a separate incident, Mrs. Brow recalled her neighbor returning home one afternoon to find an illegal immigrant sitting on her front steps.
“He wanted to charge his phone at her house,” Mrs. Brow said.
While the neighbor allowed the man to charge his cellphone outside the house, she also called Border Patrol, who came and arrested him.
In yet another incident, a neighbor informed Mrs. Brow that three illegal immigrants were on her property.
“They just walked down my driveway and turned around and came back onto my property,” Mrs. Brow said. “The way I see it, if you have nothing to hide, you do things legally.”
Border Patrol agents apprehended 6,925 illegal immigrants from 79 different countries in fiscal 2023, Mr. Garcia wrote on X, an “astonishing 550-percent increase compared to last year.”
And during the first four months of fiscal year 2024, apprehensions have already doubled the same period in fiscal 2023, he wrote.
Last month, “a citizen’s report in Champlain, NY, led to the arrest of 10 Bangladesh citizens,” Mr. Garcia wrote.
Mr. Garcia highlighted the arrest of a Mexican national who had crossed illegally into the United States. The man was arrested in September 2023 in North Troy, Vermont.
“He was in possession of drugs, ammunition, and multiple weapons. He was sentenced to 10 months for unlawful possession of a firearm,” Mr. Garcia wrote on X.
Swanton Sector Local 2266, the union that represents border agents working in the sector, didn’t respond to a request from The Epoch Times seeking comment for this story.
“We are also seeing a lot of movement at the Canada–U.S. border,” said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Charles Poirer, Division C communications officer in Quebec.
“The trend of ’southbound' crossing (illegal crossings from Canada to the U.S.) is growing. Our patrol officers are intercepting a lot of migrants almost every day and every night along the border,” he told The Epoch Times.
Although Canadian law enforcement “can only speculate at the motives of those individuals,” it appears a “sizable proportion” is using Canada as a stepping stone to gain entry to the United States, Mr. Poirier said.
“They land at one of Canada’s international airports (Montreal or Toronto), and within a few hours of their arrival, we intercept them at the border.”
The RCMP recently launched a number of investigations into human smuggling operations, several of which resulted in criminal charges in Canada, he said.
‘It’s Frustrating’
Matt, an employee at the Derby Four Seasons Motel in Derby, Vermont, said that illegal immigrants come expecting rides and other assistance from the locals after Border Patrol drops them off in town.
From that point on, the illegal immigrants are on their own, he said.
“We’re so sick of it. It’s frustrating. It’s the [language] barrier. They can’t speak English. That’s where the barriers take so much out of us.
“They’re coming from everywhere,” Matt told The Epoch Times. “They’re trying to go to New York. They say they have no money, but somebody comes up with the money. Their shoes are high-end. We had a family with a baby with a $300 baby crib. They have money somewhere.”
Matt said the illegal immigrants usually walk into the motel lobby in the cold morning hours to warm themselves or wait for transportation.
“They always have the phone in your face, trying to translate. Oh, I get so mad. I can’t handle that,” Matt said.
“The problem is they expect from us. They expect from the taxpayers. We’re all struggling. They expect us to go out of our way and give them free rides. Some of them thought we offered free rides here.
“It’s not our job to babysit them. That’s how we feel here—we have to babysit them a lot.”
‘Abdication of Duty’
In North Dakota, 1,600 miles west of the Swanton Sector, Gov. Doug Burgum said he’s concerned about the worsening northern border problem under the Biden administration.
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