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from https://www.newsweek.com/migrants-north-dakota-northern-border-crossings-1906494

Massive Surge in Migrants in North Dakota Raises Alarms: 'Worst' Is Coming Published May 30, 2024 at 2:57 PM EDT
Updated May 30, 2024 at 7:59 PM EDT

00:43
US Has Given Citizenship To 350,200 Migrants Since 2020 Election
By Nick Mordowanec
Staff Writer

Republican North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley warned that
illegal immigration flows through the northern U.S. border that
accelerated under the Biden administration will continue, with "the
worst yet to come."

Wrigley testified on Wednesday in Grand Forks, North Dakota, as part of
a field hearing held by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement. The hearing, titled "The Biden
Border Crisis: North Dakota Perspectives," focused on how illegal
crossings from the less talked-about domestic border are affecting North Dakota's residents and communities. Only Republican lawmakers participated.

North Dakota is home to 18 land ports of entry along North Dakota's
310-mile portion of America's 5,525-mile northern border, with just
three of those ports open 24 hours per day.

"The situation has deteriorated significantly in recent years, and the
current situation is untenable with millions of illegal entrants
streaming across the America's southwest border," Wrigley said. "North
Dakota is already experiencing negative law enforcement impacts as a
result of the Biden Administration's refusal to shut down the border,
but my concern is that the worst is yet to come, both in the context of
street crimes and violence as well as in the arena of America's national security."

Northern border
U.S. Customs officers stand beside a sign saying that the border is
closed in Lansdowne, Ontario, on March 22, 2020. North Dakota officials testified on May 29 regarding a surge in migration into the U.S.... More
LARS HAGBERG/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Wrigley said there were 4,444 migrant encounters in fiscal year 2023, a
drastic increase compared to the 2,127 in fiscal year 2022 and 548 in
fiscal year 2021.

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"Early indications are that fiscal year 2024 will continue the
statistical climb," he added.

Encounters include apprehensions of illegal attempts to cross the
border, people deemed inadmissible by U.S. border security personnel,
and expulsions.


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Wrigley also testified of the differentiation of drug prices at both
U.S. borders, saying that fentanyl and synthetic opioids are routinely available at the Southwest border area for as little as 25 cents per
pill. But North Dakota is "a significant draw" to drug traffickers, he
said, as it is not out of the ordinary for one pill to cost between $60
and $80.

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Cass County Sheriff Jesse Jahner testified on behalf of the
approximately 187,000 residents in his North Dakota region, saying that
he and other officials "are starting to see changes in our communities" regarding narcotics trafficking and overdoses, mental health- and addiction-related crimes, and homelessness.

All effects in total "are placing huge strains on our public safety infrastructure, including mental health and addiction services and incarceration capacity issues."

Others who participated in the hearing included lawmakers from Minnesota
and Pennsylvania.

"This is about policies," Minnesota State Representative Michelle
Fischbach said. "The policies are wrong and the policies need to be changed.

"And I will say as we listen to that, President Biden has the
opportunity to change this. He can do it right now. He can change these policies. He can return to the Trump administration's policies and shut
this border down. And we need to shut all of the border down, not just
the southern border, but the northern border."

Pennsylvania State Representative Mike Kelly, the co-chair of the
Northern Border Security Caucus, called such hearings necessary due to
the 485 percent increase in northern land border encounters since
January 2021 coupled with roughly 90 percent of terror watchlist
suspects entering the U.S. being caught at land border ports of entry at
the northern border, citing U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) 2023
fiscal year data.

"Under the watch of President Biden and [Department of Homeland
Security] Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas, the northern border continues
to face record illegal immigration and drug smuggling. Now, their
dereliction of duty has turned every state into a border state," Kelly said.

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