Two days before U.S. president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs on Canadian goods over migrants and fentanyl, the RCMP alerted the U.S. Border Patrol to a group crossing illegally from Quebec near Chateaugay, N.Y.
At first, Border Patrol agents lost track of the group, but later noticed a suspicious white Acura with New Jersey plates, leading to a high-speed chase that ended on a highway.
It was the third smuggling operation in four days that U.S. authorities intercepted. Between Thursday and Sunday, agents apprehended 16 individuals from India, Mexico, Colombia, and Guatemala crossing the Quebec-New York border. Court records revealed smugglers charged $3,000 to $5,500 per person.
These were just the latest few among hundreds of interceptions in 2024. Increasingly, migrants see Canada as a gateway to illegally entering the US.
This year alone, the total number of intercepted migrants illegally crossing from Canada into the US is 21,000, as per data published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
And while this pales in comparison to what’s happening along the Mexico-US border, it’s clearly caught the eye of Donald Trump.
The US President-elect, who takes office in less than two months, made a post to Truth Social on Monday night, threatening a 25% tariff on all goods if Canada and Mexico don’t take action to tighten their borders and the flow of illegal drugs and migrants to the states.
In response, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc has promised to make “additional investments” to the Canadian Border Services Agency.
