'They're going to exploit it': U.S. border chief on increased illegal crossings at U.S.-Canada border

Increased illegal crossings from Canada into the U.S. have not reached a crisis yet, but collaboration between the two countries’ border patrols can always be improved, according to the chief of U.S. border patrol.

Raul Ortiz spoke with CTV National News’ Richard Madan on Thursday about the issues patrolling the U.S.’s northern border amid staffing shortages and an increase in crossings.

Last year, there were more than 100,000 migrant encounters from Canada, according to Homeland Security, which is more than three times the amount recorded in 2020.

Leaning on his 32 years of experience, Ortiz said they always see a seasonal fluctuation in illegal crossings from the northern U.S. border with Canada.

“During the winter months, it becomes a challenge, not just for us, but for all of law enforcement,” he said.

But recently there have been additional complicating factors, he said, such as staff shortages and COVID-19 restrictions impacting border travel being lifted..

“This morning, I had six sectors on the northern border that had zero apprehensions, but I have one sector that had 37 apprehensions,” he added.

Seeing a lot of activity in one specific part of the border is not unusual, he said, and it mirrors what he says is often seen on the southern border.

“In 2014 and 2019, South Texas was the epicentre of migration, some of the narcotics flows, now we had traffic across the entire southwest border, but they seemed to experience the highest flows,” Ortiz said. “Well, what's happening on the northern border, it's concentrated in one location, yet, we have to maintain a focus on all 5,000 miles.”

Smuggling and human trafficking may be behind some of the increased crossings, some border patrol agents believe. Ortiz said that when it comes to criminal organizations looking to smuggle people across the border, “if they see an opportunity, or gap, they’re going to exploit it. And so whether it is flights, whether it is not having enough law enforcement present in locations, they will certainly do everything they can to exploit that loophole.”

“What you’re finding is this migrant population is flying into Canada and then, of course, they may coordinate with the smuggler or criminal organizations, and then they get trafficked across the border into the U.S.,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz added that there is a correlation between illegal crossings often going up at the same time as legitimate border crossing increases.

“When you think about the last 24 months, and the fact that we had a lot of constraints on the movement of people, goods, you name it, as those constraints eased up, then I think what you start to experience is more cross-border legitimate traffic,” he said.

Some of the increase in illegal crossings may be due to more people moving around in general. A key to curbing these illegal crossings is the collaborative work done on both sides of the border, Ortiz said.

“We have to continuously work collaboratively to make sure that we are exchanging information,” he said. “When you think about patrols, and enforcement, I guess it has got to be complimentary, especially in the border environment.”

Even if he had the 16,000 agents that are deployed to the southern U.S. border, he said there’s no way the U.S. border patrol would “be able to cover that entire stretch.”

Instead, they utilize something called “mirrored patrols,” where patrols on both sides of the border try to work together. But with limited resources on both sides, this doesn’t always mean a perfect mirror, Ortiz said.

“We continue to work closely with our Canadian partners, but I think you can always improve upon that,” he said. “I have representatives of the border patrol assigned into Canada who work closely with RCMP partners. And I can tell you that even during the COVID environment, I had regular calls with my counterpart with the RCMP to address some of these issues.”

STAFFING SHORTAGES CAUSING PROBLEMS

In 2012, Ortiz was the deputy of operations for the U.S. border patrol in Washington, D.C., and said that back then, there were around 2,200 border patrol agents on the northern border. That number, according to Ortiz, has since reduced by around 300 agents.

“We had, I think, pretty good coverage of our area of responsibility up there,” he said. “Currently, right now, we have about 1,900 agents up on the northern border assigned… that is going to certainly have an impact on your operations.”

Some northern border patrol agents believe the dip in numbers has been caused partially by agents being redeployed to the southern border. One northern border patrol chief, Robert Danley, told CTV News that he had lost a third of his staff to the southern border.

But Ortiz said that this perception of a mass redeployment to the southern border was “a bit inaccurate.”

He explained that at the beginning of last year, around 830 border patrol agents who were on the northern border were sent down the southern border “because of operational requirements.”

However, this is not the case today, he said. This year, the number of agents being redeployed from the northern border to the southern border is a fraction of that number.

“As of today, I have about 25 border patrol agents from the northern border assigned to the southern border, and all of those individuals volunteered to deploy down there,” he added.

Although there are roughly 20,000 border patrol agents in the U.S. in total, the process of moving an agent across the country at the drop of a hat is not straightforward, said Ortiz, and so it’s not as common as believed.

DO CANADA’S VISA POLICIES PLAY A ROLE?

Republicans have been pressuring the White House to ask Ottawa to review its visa policies as part of a new focus on the northern border.

A 28-member Northern Border Security Caucus was formed recently to tackle the issue, with Republicans raising concerns that too many people may be entering Canada purely to get to the U.S.

Citizens of more than 50 countries can enter Canada for a short trip without needing a visa.

From October last year through January, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded 55,736 encounters at or near the Canada-U.S. border with people deemed inadmissible, more than twice the nearly 24,000 encounters that took place in the same time period the previous year.

While some of his border patrol agents have expressed that Canada’s visa policies are too open, Ortiz said that he tries not to get caught up in questions of policy.

“What I really want to do is think about the interdiction efforts, and how do we resolve those challenges that we face out there in the operational environment,” he said. “When it comes to policy, when it comes to a country or another organization and what they should focus on, I really try not to dabble in that.”

He added that the U.S. has some issues that could arguably be tracked to their visa policies being too restrictive.

“We probably don't have enough visas for certain populations, we have a workforce shortage in some areas,” he said. “And so I think there's folks at the department level and within the state department that really should focus on that, and I know they're working closely. Our ambassador in Canada is having some of the same conversations with his counterpart in the ministries.”

When asked if Canada should be upping its screening measures for those flying into Canada, Ortiz said that although he doesn’t “know the full capability of our Canadian counterparts,” he believes Canada’s intelligence capacity is “on par with where the U.S. is with respect to some of those capabilities.”

With files from The Canadian Press