Along Alaska-to-Maine border, migration hits record numbers. Take a look behind the data.

During a Republican presidential debate this fall, candidate Vivek Ramaswamy made headlines when he called for a wall to be built along the 5,525-mile border between the United States and Canada.

“We've got to skate to where the puck is going, not just where the puck is," Ramaswamy said. "Don’t just build the wall. Build both walls.”

A political pipedream because of the cost alone, the idea is just the latest example that the debate over immigration policy is expanding to include the world's longest international land border. It's not just the 38-year-old entrepreneur who's discussing it, either.

Among the Republican members of Congress who's been vocal about the issue is U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, R-16th Dist.

Kelly, a seven-term congressman, says security at the northern border is a major cause for concern and he's been pushing President Joe Biden's administration to act.

Why? Because there have been record numbers of migrants crossing the border from Canada into the U.S. over the past two years, including more in the most recent year than the three previous years combined. With that has come a surge of drug trafficking, including fentanyl.

During a Judiciary Committee meeting Nov. 3, Kelly noted that 85% of suspects on the terror watchlist who were apprehended at a port of entry in the U.S. had been caught at the northern border.

"It's virtually unwatched," Kelly said in an interview with the USA TODAY Network. "I mean, we have people, the border control agents, they're up there and they do a hell of a job. But so many of them right now are doing data input. On the northern border, we don't have the coverage, the eyes on the border that we should have."

Kelly has become so vocal about the issue that in February he was named co-chairman of a new House Northern Border Security Caucus.

"Where is the outrage?" Kelly protested earlier this past spring at a news conference in Washington, D.C. "Where is the outrage, America?"

The increase in international migration isn't exclusive to the U.S. In 2020, the number of people who had moved, legally or illegally, to a country where they weren't born grew to 281 million, about 3.6% of the world's population, according to the United Nations' 2022 World Migration Report. Though Europe and Asia are home to the greatest percentage of international migrants, each having about 86 million, the U.S. is home to more migrants — 50.6 million — than any other nation, the Pew Research Center found. And that figure doesn't include the 1 million migrants added in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Republicans have blamed the crisis at the southern border on the Democratic president for what they say are lax immigration policies.

In one of its first acts, on Feb. 28, the caucus of 28 House Republicans sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, lambasting the administration.

"This administration has watched idly as our states bear the brunt of disastrous and dangerous policies," the Republicans wrote to Mayorkas. "Now, your refusal to address these crises has left America's northern border communities, from Alaska to Maine, along the world's longest international border, at the forefront of a growing threat to our national security."

Kelly is now trying to advance a resolution that calls on Mayorkas to develop a formal plan to secure the northern border. Republicans are already in the process of attempting to impeach Mayorkas for his handling of the southern border.

What the U.S.-Canada border data show

U.S. Customs and Border Protection tracks the encounters that Office of Field Operations and Border Patrol agents have with migrants who are deemed inadmissible under either Title 8 or Title 42 of U.S. Code.

Office of Field Operations agents work at the 140 ports of entry along the border. At these ports of entry, migrants surrender to authorities in order to make a claim for asylum. Border Patrol agents work between the ports to prevent illegal entry into the country.

Title 8 includes people who are determined to be inadmissible for a range of reasons, individuals seeking humanitarian assistance through U.S. laws, and people who withdraw an application for admission and return to their country of origin in a short timeframe.

Title 42 was enacted by President Donald Trump in March 2020. It's a seldom-used statute that allows the government to restrict travel into the U.S. from countries where there's been an outbreak of a communicable disease. The Biden administration allowed the rule to expire in May.

Like the southern border, there's been a significant but relative uptick in migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. via Canada.

From Alaska to Maine, all border states have seen an influx of migrants over the past two years, especially New York and the New England states, which border the heavily populated areas of Montreal and Quebec City.

Between the 2021 and 2023 fiscal years, there was a 600% increase in the number of migrants apprehended or detained by federal agents in the 13 border states with Canada. Encounters jumped from 27,180 in 2021 to 109,535 in 2022 to 189,402 in the 2023 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.

By May, the number of encounters had surpassed all of those from 2022. And there were more encounters in August alone — 19,835 — than at any point in the 45 previous months in which data was available, according to data from U.S. Customs & Border Protection.

Only one in five encounters that federal agents had last year were with Canadian citizens (37,169). About 15% of the people coming from Canada were originally from India (30,010) while nearly the same number (28,189) came from Mexico, Central America or South America.

Northern Land Border Encounters by State, 2020-2023

Terror watchlist and drug trafficking

Although the number of encounters has increased at the northern border, the amount of fentanyl being seized has dropped, from 22 pounds in 2021 to 14 pounds in 2022 to just 2 pounds in the 2023 fiscal year. However, in October alone, agents seized more fentanyl than they did in the previous year, 3 pounds.

Two pounds of fentanyl has the potential to kill nearly 500,000 people, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

Kelly said the record number of encounters aren't his greatest concern.

"The number of people that we come in contact with is alarming," Kelly told the USA TODAY Network. "What's more alarming is the people we don't see and we don't know who's coming across."

What U.S. officials do know, however, is that 85% of terror watchlist suspects apprehended at a port of entry — 429 out of 505 — were caught at the northern border, up 38% from the previous year.

"I'm calling on Secretary Mayorkas to recognize the unique crisis along the northern border and to work with Congress to solve this problem that gravely threatens our entire nation," Kelly said in a statement recently.

Kelly has met with Border Patrol agents in Erie who are part of the Buffalo sector, one of eight regions that the northern border is divided into by U.S. Border Patrol. Among the causes Kelly cites about northern border protection is how busy agents are with processing migrants who have crossed the southern border.

The Customs and Border Protection Buffalo sector said in a statement that the federal agency "utilizes every available and beneficial resource at its disposal.

"This can include utilizing virtual processing to augment processing capabilities at southern border sectors," an official said in a statement provided to the USA TODAY Network. "Border Patrol agents from coastal or northern borders log in virtually and process subjects physically housed at southern border locations."

Customs and Border Protection began using virtual processing several years ago and continues to rely on it as needed. At times, it has also sent border agents from other areas to the southern border on a volunteer basis.

Kelly notes that staffing for the northern border has been stagnant since 2009.

Kelly also points to the ease at which migrants can enter Canada before crossing the border. For the cost of a plane ticket and Canada's $7 electronic travel authorization fee, which allows people to fly to "or transit through" a Canadian airport from another country, some people are bypassing the long waits at the Mexico border and attempting to enter the U.S. from Canada.

Comparing the U.S. southern and northern borders

There are major differences between what's happening at the U.S.-Canada border and the U.S.-Mexico border.

In sheer numbers alone, there were 13 times more encounters at the southern border (2,475,669) compared to the northern border (189,402) in the last fiscal year. The amount of illegal drugs seized at the southern border (241,000 pounds) was five times greater than what was seized at the northern border (55,100 pounds). Fentanyl? Some 26,700 pounds was seized at the southern border compared to just 2 pounds last fiscal year.

But there is also a significant difference in how migrants are attempting to gain entry into the U.S.

Some 95% of migrants who attempted to cross into the U.S. from Canada last year did so at a port of entry. Only 5%, or 10,021, crossed irregularly.

But 82% of migrants entering the U.S. through the southern border made an irregular crossing, compared to the 17% who crossed at a port of entry.

The latter, however, is a 10-point increase from the previous year, which the Migration Policy Institute attributes to the Biden administration's new approach to the southern border, which disincentives irregular crossings by banning anyone who crosses illegally from being granted asylum in the U.S. and incentivizes crossings at ports of entry.

Considering the different paths migrants are taking to enter the U.S. through the northern and southern borders, Customs and Border Protection officials say the increase in apprehensions from irregular crossings at the northern border is "small compared to other irregular migration flows, however, USBP continues to analyze trends as they occur and respond, such as optimizing repatriation efforts or sending additional resources to areas as needed."

More: Escaping gang persecution, 45 Guatemalan refugees resettle in Erie, more likely to arrive

Expert: U.S.-Canada border 'really not a problem'

The northern border has been mostly absent from the longstanding immigration debate due to its diverse, remote terrain. Bookended by the Rocky Mountains in the west and the Appalachians in the east, it is inhospitable to anyone attempting to cross the border illegally. The U.S. also has a much stronger relationship with the Canadian government than it does with its Mexico.

"The northern border, it's not really a problem," said David N. Biette, director of the Eastern Regional Conference of the Council of State Governments, an organization that "facilitates the exchange of ideas among state policymakers, business leaders and the academic community."

Biette, an expert on U.S.-Canadian relations, including immigration, said the northern border is closely monitored aerially, including with the use of satellites among other tools.

"From Erie east to the Maine-New Brunswick border, there's a lot of surveillance," said Biette, who has accompanied legislators on tours of ports of entry on both sides of the northern border. "Most of the Maine border with Quebec is woods. It's pretty inhospitable and really there's nowhere to go. If you're a refugee, you're not going to trudge through the woods of northern Maine with no roads and no path to get there."

Of course, there is no failsafe, he said.

"Nothing is totally secure," said Biette, a former director and senior adviser to the Washington D.C.-based Canada Institute. "If you have a 15-foot fence, someone's going to get a 16-foot ladder.

"I think the system does work," he said. "The United States has invested a whole lot into border security — things that you cannot see."

The issue affects both countries.

Data from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police show that the number of asylum seekers intercepted coming from the United States skyrocketed from 4,400 in the 2021 calendar year to 39,000 in 2022. Many of these people arrived in the U.S. via the southern border before being transported north to places like New York City.

The U.S. and Canadian governments have already taken steps to address issues at the border by amending the Safe Third Country Agreement, a 2004 pact that requires asylum seekers to make their claim for asylum in whichever of the two countries they reach first. The STCA enables the other country to turn away anyone who attempts to cross from one country to the other.

But it had applied only to ports of entry. The amendment now makes it applicable to the entire 5,525-mile northern border.

By doing so, officials have addressed the number of migrants crossing the border from the U.S. into Canada via Quebec's Roxham Road, a rural roadway that has served as a path for unauthorized asylum seekers to enter Canada.

Through October, the number of migrants intercepted by Canadian authorities had fallen to 14,185.

What it means for Rep. Mike Kelly's district

Kelly, who co-chairs the House Northern Border Security Caucus with Rep. Ryan Zinke, of Montana, said the administration must do more, and fast.

Kelly's district in northwestern Pennsylvania includes the 42 miles of maritime border the state has with Canada, the fewest of any northern border state or Canadian province.

He acknowledges that the number of apprehensions in the state — just 29 last year compared to 90,060 in neighboring New York — were lower than 11 other border states, with the exception of New Hampshire, and that Border Patrol agents and the U.S. Coast Guard officers have the waters of Lake Erie secured. "I don't think we're going to see a flotilla of boats coming in that are loaded with fentanyl," he said.

More: 'Extremely dangerous': Spike in illegal crossings at Canada-Vermont border has feds sounding alarm

But he also said residents of the 16th District don't need to look further than the indictment of 58 members and associates of the 4-Nation gang in Erie to know how drug trafficking can affect their community.

"We're protected by Lake Erie," he said. "But when it comes into New York, I think it's foolish to think that somehow it doesn't get down into Pennsylvania."

Kelly said it's the job of the president to lead on the larger issue of immigration reform, but he blames both parties for turning it into a "political football."

"It starts at the very top," he said. "Whoever the president of the United States is has to be able to work with the Congress on both sides and say, 'let's get it figured out.' We need these people, but let's do it the right way."

Matthew Rink is a member of the USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania state investigative reporting team. He can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Record migration makes US-Canada border new political, policy front