LEWISTON, N.Y. — The Niagara River has now become the center of the northern border’s emerging migrant crisis.
Officials across the region have witnessed a 300% uptick in illegal crossings across the river since late December, causing concern for Western New Yorkers.
“While there's a lot of focus on the southern border, and rightfully so, a lot of those same issues … we're seeing impacts here in the northern border,” New York State Senator Robert Ortt said.
In early January, border patrol released surveillance images showing four migrants they arrested attempting to use a raft to illegally cross the Niagara River into the United States.
It’s a problem that is now becoming recurring.
Brady Waikel with Customs and Border Patrol attributes it to a program Canada offers, which allows people to fly from Mexico and other nations into Canada without a visa.
“A lot of the people we’re seeing are flying into Canada under that program and then a portion of them are then now trying to cross into the United States,” he said.
Some of those individuals have been seen attempting to cross the river and caught by homeland security cameras hidden in trees.
But for Niagara County politicians, the concern isn’t those they’ve been able to stop, but rather the ones they haven’t and the state’s current legislation keeping local law enforcement from intervening.
“Our local law enforcement, and in some cases, our federal partners, their hands are tied,” Ortt said. “The sanctuary state policies preclude local law enforcement … from cooperating or notifying federal authorities if they suspect someone is in this country illegally.”
Because of this, Ortt, alongside other Niagara County Republicans, announced new legislation Thursday aimed at changing the state’s sanctuary policies and restoring power to local law enforcement in these border-crossing situations.
“We’re telling you the numbers of people that have been caught,” Ortt said. “That’s the point. We don’t know if those are the actual full numbers because we have roadblocks the state of New York has put up to prevent the enforcement of federal law, and that’s the issue.”