Manitoba Border crossings. Image credit: Twitter/Marcin Grabrys
Winnipeg/CMEDIA: A spike in illegal border crossing attempts from Manitoba has been seen by United States border patrol agents.
David Marcus, a border patrol agent in Grand Forks, N.D. reported saying that in his five years with the Grand Forks sector, he has never seen this many attempts to cross the border, not the most recently reported crossing attempt that happened early Tuesday morning.
“The biggest thing we’re seeing is people are just desperate to come to the United States,” Marcus said.
There have been 100 illegal border crossing attempts in the first six months of the fiscal year, whereas this time last year, there had been only 22 attempted crossings, said Marcus.
Nine people who tried to illegally leave Manitoba near Sprague, Maninto to cross the United States had to call 911 to be rescued after ending up in a flooded bog, suffering from hypothermia.
As an outcome of the attempted border crossing, Manitoba’s Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen was reported saying earlier this week that ongoing discussions about border security are in progress with the federal government.
He added that those trying to cross the border can face significant harm.
“At this stage of the year, we’re still not out of the grips of winter, so there’s risk, as we saw last year,” Goertzen said.
In late-January 2022, a family of four was found frozen to death while trying to cross the Canada-U.S. border amid severe winter temperatures.
They had been dropped off near the border at Emerson, RCMP believed and were trying to cross on foot with a larger group of people, when they became separated.
“Our message would be, don’t risk it,” Marcus said. “It’s not worth the risk of your life or your family’s life,” and warned people should not trust human smuggling organizations claiming to be able to get them across the border safely.
Marcus said those who are caught trying to cross the border illegally are removed back to their country of origin.
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