The rescue from a flooded bog last week of nine men who had illegally crossed into Minnesota from Canada underscores a dramatic increase in undocumented immigrants coming into the United States across the northern border.
Since the start of the 2023 fiscal year on Oct. 1, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol says agents have encountered 100 migrants in the Grand Forks sector, which encompasses the international border in North Dakota and Minnesota. That compares with 81 encounters in all of fiscal 2022 and 90 in fiscal 2021.
The 100 migrant encounters are among 3,830 encounters along the entire northern U.S. border this fiscal year, a 41% rise over all of 2022.
