First appeared on FOX: House Republicans are moving to beef up security along the northern border as the U.S.-Canada border becomes more of a concern for anti-illegal immigration hardliners.
Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-New York, is leading a new bill that would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to conduct an annual threat assessment of the northern border.
It also directs the Department of Homeland Security to update its northern border enforcement strategy within 90 days of the release of the threat assessment.
The Biden administration has spent much of his presidency grappling with the crisis at the southern border.
Illegal immigrants in New York with drugs and guns previously arrested at southern border and released: ICE
House Republicans want to request a comprehensive assessment of the northern border from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. (Getty Images)
The U.S.-Canada border has also seen growing problems in recent months, but there are far fewer resources to deal with the problem.
In fiscal year 2020, there were 2,019 Customs and Border Protection agents patrolling the northern border compared with 16,878 on the southern border. And while there were more than 150,000 fewer encounters on the northern border than on the southern border at the time, that number has more than quadrupled since then.
According to figures provided by Langworthy’s office, 9,460 people were apprehended on the northern border in the first seven months of fiscal year 2024, nearly double the 4,849 apprehended in the entirety of the previous fiscal year.
Langworthy’s bill currently has 13 co-sponsors, including Republicans from northern border states.
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Rep. Nick Langworthy is leading the new bill. (Getty Images)
“I met first-hand with Border Patrol agents in New York and saw their struggles first-hand – they are severely undersupported and must confront this crisis with limited resources,” he told Fox News Digital. “This bill is not only necessary, it demands greater transparency from the Biden Administration regarding our national security and sovereignty.”
“Since President Biden took office, we have seen an unprecedented surge in illegal crossings at our northern border, an 846 percent increase in a single sector, threatening our national security and the safety of communities across NY24,” said co-sponsor Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York, whose district includes a small portion of the border.
“President Biden has completely dismantled our southern border, so now the northern border is being targeted,” said Rep. Lisa McClain, a Republican from Michigan.
Democrats, meanwhile, have accused Republicans of making the border crisis worse by rejecting a bipartisan border and immigration overhaul earlier this year, a bill that Republicans said was inadequate given the scale of the problem.
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The southern border has far more police resources than the northern border. (Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Republicans in Congress chose to put partisan politics over national security, twice voting down the toughest and fairest set of reforms in decades,” the White House said in a recent statement announcing new executive orders on the southern border.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the White House for comment on Langworthy’s bill.
