(PartiallyPolitics.com) – On Tuesday dozens of lawmakers pushed for Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to address a “growing threat to our national security” at the United States-Canada border.
In a letter signed by 25 House members, including Reps. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., the lawmakers referred to the “serious concern” regarding the increased number of encounters across the northern border, along with the increase in drug smuggling. They further pointed out that the U.S. Border Patrol had a lack of agent staffing.
GOP lawmakers have noted that Mayorkas’ refusal to speak about this crisis has resulted in the northern border communities, from Alaska to Maine, being “at the forefront of a growing threat to our national security.”
The Daily Caller, which also released parts of the letter, pointed out that the U.S.-Canada border’s Swanton sector has had a 900 percent increase in the number of migrant encounters. This increase comes at a time when the number of encounters along the southern border has also greatly increased, reaching 2.3 million in the 2022 fiscal year.
Lawmakers further pointed out that with the coming of spring, there is an increase in the concerns about the lack of staffing and resources along the northern Border which they claim is “overwhelmed, under-resourced, and under-manned.”
The Daily Caller reports have noted that the federal government has pushed more resources to the southern border in order to address the increased number of migrant encounters, which included pulling Border Patrol agents from the northern border.
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