GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. — The questions and controversy over illegal immigration on the southern U.S. border are now increasingly shifting to the northern border as well.
Federal and state lawmakers visited with border patrol agents here in Western New York Friday to get their perspectives.
Security and staffing at the northern border has been a concern for our lawmakers in Washington, such as Buffalo Democratic U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins for several years. He raised the issue as Border Patrol and Customs agents from Western New York were temporarily assigned to the southern border to help handle the massive illegal immigration issue there.
That is still an issue, but now the subject has intensified with a twist. That is because of mass migrant transfers by bus from New York City into northern New York State communities such as Plattsburgh. They then may enter Canada and even end up in Niagara Falls, Ontario, hotels which are booked by the Canadian government for thousands of asylum seekers.
It's not just legal or illegal immigration as other lawmakers say they learned in that briefing in Grand Island. There's the additional factor of drug cartels.
U.S. Representative Claudia Tenney said: "They did express their concern that now that we have diverted a lot of our attention to the southern border. We're seeing them taking advantage, the (drug) cartels moving into the northern border. And again, it is about our security and it's the ability of these cartels to really maneuver around our laws."
No agent spoke to the media Friday. But a Customs and Border Protection spokesman confirms more illegal cross border activity in the Buffalo Sector with smuggling back and forth of migrants, drugs, and other contraband.
And while there is that overall divisive political debate over immigration, duty policies are now a problem as well.
A border patrol agent based in North Dakota told an NBC affiliate station there that "We need more asylum officers. We need more immigration judges."
Tenney further explained: "They are supposed to be focused on border security and focused on keeping us safe, and they've been moved off of their job description, and really moved off their mission, and are now doing immigration and immigration issues and dealing with asylum claims, which is why you see the crossings. There's the inability of the border agents to really focus on stopping the illegality, and we're talking about human trafficking, human smuggling, counterfeiting, drug trafficking."
And even with water barriers here, Tenney says drug cartels pushing dangerous fentanyl are still try to get into the United States up here just as attention is focused on the southern border.
"That's one of the reasons people come up here is because it's not as difficult to traverse across the water. You know it's not as long as coming across the southern border in some areas, and also dealing with desert conditions in some ways. They're coming across in winter they indicated with the numbers being similar. You'd think it'd be a deterrent but apparently it's not," Tenney said.
The Republican representative went on to say: "I have personally heard from Sheriffs across my district, which spans all the way from Clayton out to Lockport and across the entire Finger Lakes, that there are numerous seizures of illicit drugs that are coming from the northern bBorder."
While again there is the larger political debate over immigration in general, New York Democratic state leaders say it is a humanitarian crisis they must handle. Gov.r Kathy Hochul has suggested spending up to $1 billion in her budget plan for relief programs in New York City for undocumented individuals who are transported north to New York from other southern border states and various locations.
Republican opponents claim New York's welcoming status as a sanctuary state encourages asylum seekers to come north and that just adds to the seemingly overwhelming problem.