Illegal immigrants from dozens of countries are crossing into the United States across the northern border, prompting legislators and law enforcement officials to call for policy action.

Border patrol agents encountered more than 189,000 individuals at the northern land border with Canada in the first nine months of 2023, according to data from Customs and Border Patrol, drastically increasing from 110,000 encounters during the same period in 2022 and from 27,000 encounters during the same period in 2021. The vast majority of encounters have been single adults rather than individuals who cross the border in a family unit.

Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia, who leads enforcement efforts for portions of the northern borders of New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, revealed last month that his team had apprehended more than 6,000 individuals from seventy-six countries in less than one year, exceeding apprehensions for the previous ten years combined.

The revelation prompted Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York and chair of the House Republican Conference, to call on President Joe Biden to secure the northern border. Representative Brian Higgins, a Democrat from New York, likewise wrote in a letter to Customs and Border Protection earlier this year to contend that reallocation of border patrol agents away from the northern border and toward the southern border is unsustainable.

New Hampshire Republican Governor Chris Sununu more recently created a task force of local, county, and state law enforcement officials to conduct patrols across the northern border, as well as coordinate with “federal law enforcement officers in the enforcement of federal criminal immigration laws.” New Hampshire shares a sixty-mile border with Canada.

“Our aim is to increase the presence and effectiveness of law enforcement in northern New Hampshire, particularly in communities in close proximity to the Canadian border,” New Hampshire Republican Attorney General John Formella said in a statement. “This will shorten response times to calls for service in the region, increase the effectiveness of crime detection and prevention in a remote area of the state, and enhance border security efforts.”

Concern over security at the northern border has increased in recent weeks as tensions flare in the Middle East, provoking questions as to whether militants have crossed the border. More than 3,000 Egyptians, 600 Iranians, 500 Syrians, 100 Lebanese, and other individuals from Middle Eastern countries where Islamic terrorist organizations maintain a strong presence have crossed the border over the past three years; more than 400 suspected terrorists have crossed the northern border in fiscal year 2023, marking a 685% increase from fiscal year 2021.