U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s border czar says there is an “extreme national security vulnerability” along the Canada-U.S. border that he plans to deal with the moment the new Republican administration takes power.
Tom Homan, named Sunday as the official in charge of all U.S. border issues, said in a television interview that he expects there will be “tough conversations” with Ottawa about the situation along the Canada-U.S. border.
“The problem with the northern border is a huge national security issue,” Homan told 7News in Watertown, N.Y., a community some 40 kilometres from a crossing into eastern Ontario. Homan is from the area.
He said “special interest aliens” — individuals from countries the U.S. says sponsor terror — use Canada as a gateway into the U.S.
“Because they know, [there’s] a lot less, fewer officers here,” Homan said. “It’s one of the things I’ll tackle when I’m in the White House.”
In raw numbers, irregular crossings along the U.S. border with Mexico substantially outpace those over the Canadian border. However, human smuggling activity from Canada has risen sharply over the past two years, particularly along the border between eastern Ontario, Quebec, New York and Vermont.
U.S. Border Patrol officers detain a large group of people after crossing into an area near Champlain, N.Y., in July. (U.S. Border Patrol)
U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents apprehended over 19,000 individuals, from 97 different countries, through this area over a 12-month span ending Oct. 2, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics.
That’s more than were apprehended throughout the same area over the previous 17 fiscal years combined, according to a recent post on X by the USBP’s Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia, who is in charge of the region, which is known as the Swanton Sector.
This has created friction with U.S. officials along border areas and their concerns were picked up by Trump during the election campaign and by his former Republican challengers Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy during the primary race.
Knows the region
Homan comes from West Carthage, N.Y., which sits about 70 kilometres southeast of Ontario’s Thousand Islands region on the St. Lawrence River.
“It’s home, I’m not going to ignore home,” he told 7News.
Homan, a former acting director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said he will be working in the White House and reporting directly to Trump while overseeing the new administration’s plans for border crackdowns and mass deportations.
Trump, Homan said, must work with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to see that Canada’s immigration laws are enforced.
A U.S. Border Patrol looks from a hilltop on the U.S. side of the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Ariz., on June 25. (Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press)
“There has to be an understanding from Canada that they can’t be a gateway to terrorists coming into the United States,” he said.
Gabriel Brunet, a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, said in an emailed statement that the two countries have a “shared interest in deepening collaboration on cross-border issues.” The statement said Canadian law enforcement agencies “are working day in and day out, with their U.S. counterparts” to maintain the integrity of the border.
LeBlanc “looks forward to building a constructive and positive relationship with whomever President Trump selects as his or her Secretary of Homeland Security,” said the statement. Trump said Tuesday his nominee for that job is South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.
U.S. pressure over irregular border crossings played a role in Canada’s decision this past winter to reimpose some visa requirements on Mexican nationals entering the country. At the time, Mexican nationals were one of the biggest drivers behind the rising numbers of irregular crossings into New York state and Vermont.
U.S. data now places India as the top source country for irregular crossings from Canada.
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Tom Kmiec, the Conservative party’s critic on the immigration, refugee and citizenship file, says the Liberals made an “error” in 2016 when they removed visa requirements from Mexican nationals and then “slow walked” the reversal. The previous Conservative government of Stephen Harper initially put the visa requirements in place.
Kmiec also referred to the recent cases involving an Egyptian-born father and son duo and a Pakistani student arrested in Canada for allegedly planning separate ISIS-linked attacks in Toronto and New York City. The student was allegedly planning to enter the U.S. with the help of human smugglers.
“On border security and visa integrity, the Liberals just aren’t worth the cost,” Kmiec said in a statement.
A deadly business
Human smuggling in Canada is a lucrative business, with some organized crime groups charging between $1,500 to $6,000 US per person for trips that often begin in Toronto or Montreal, then head through borderland areas of rivers, farmlands and forests.
Some journeys turn fatal. This past December, Ana Karen Vasquez-Flores, a 33-year-old pregnant Mexican woman, was found dead near Champlain, N.Y., after crossing from Canada.
The RCMP announced in June it had taken down an international smuggling ring allegedly connected to the St. Lawrence River drowning deaths of two families — one from India and the other from Romania — in March 2023. Both families were being smuggled into the U.S.