US-Canada illegal border crossings surge – and those migrants are heading to NYC

CLINTON COUNTY, N.Y. - Mountain Mart, a gas station in the small city of Plattsburgh, New York, was once an unassuming pit stop before a trip to the nearby Adirondacks, or perhaps a stay near Lake Champlain. Thanks to its proximity to the northern border, it’s now better known as an outpost for migrants, the penultimate stop on their long journeys from home.

Under the cover of darkness on a recent summer night, FOX 5 NY’s Stephanie Bertini and photojournalist Lenny Torres found a group of migrants at this gas station, located 30 miles from the Canadian border and 300 miles from New York City.

READ MORE: Yellow cabs wait near US-Canada border to drive migrants to NYC

This group represents a sliver in the massive surge of illegal border crossings at the northern border: In fiscal year 2021, Border Control logged 916 illegal border crossings in the north. So far, this fiscal, that number has skyrocketed to nearly 13,000.

"Are you going to New York City?" Bertini asked one of the few asylum seekers willing to speak on camera.

"Yes," he responded reluctantly. 

As New York City reconciles with the glut of migrants bussed from the southern border, FOX 5 NY turns its cameras to the wide-open northern border. Here, asylum seekers can wriggle through grassy, rural spaces, slip into Upstate New York and easily find buses and drivers that will take them to the Big Apple.

Here’s a breakdown of what we found. 

The big picture: Northern border crossings surge

Stretching more than 5,500 miles long, the U.S.-Canada border is the longest land border in the world, more than twice as long as the U.S.-Mexico border to our south.

"We have seen an increase by USBP in apprehensions of individuals unlawfully crossing the northern border…" U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement to FOX 5 NY.

Border crossing data

The data paints a clear picture of how staggering this increase is: The 2024 fiscal year so far, which represents a period between October 2023 and June 2024, saw 16,459 encounters, already exceeding the last fiscal year (October 2022-September 2023), when Border Patrol recorded 10,021 encounters.

In FY 2022, Border Patrol agents apprehended just 2,238, and in FY 2021, the number was only 916. This amounts to a nearly 1,000% increase between 2021 and 2023.

This pales in comparison to the number of illegal crossings at the southern border, where 1,278,722 were recorded between October 2023 and May 2024. Still, local and federal officials say the northern influx is cause for concern.

Zooming in: Clinton County, New York

Clinton County, located in the northeastern tip of New York, holds sprawling state parks, forests and lakes within its 1,000 square miles, and only has a population of about 80,000 residents, according to 2020 U.S. Census Bureau data.

Here, no walls, fences or major barriers mark the divide between what is Canadian and what is American. Anyone willing to cross illegally can easily hide between trees and tall grasses, navigating the border undetected. It’s "a backdoor" to the United States, according to Thomas Trombley, the town supervisor of Champlain, located two miles from the border.

"They have long stretches of border that just don’t have enough people to cover it … The numbers are surging because it’s easy," Major Nicholas Leon, Chief Deputy of Clinton County Sheriff’s Office, told FOX 5 NY.

Clinton County is particularly vulnerable, Leon said, due to its accessibility.

"Out of the entire northern border, it’s the easiest to metropolitan areas in Canada, where they can fly into, and it’s easiest to cross the border with a huge pipeline down to New York City," he said.

Who are the migrants crossing the New York-Canadian border?

FOX 5 NY’s Stephanie Bertini and photojournalist Lenny Torres tried to speak with migrants who pulled up to the gas station, which is also adjacent to a Trailways bus stop that offers direct service to Port Authority Bus Terminal.

According to USCBP records, migrants crossing the northern border originate from different parts of the world. The highest numbers of those crossing illegally through Canada include people from India, Mexico, Romania, Guatemala, Haiti and Venezuela. One man who did speak was carrying a document provided by the U.S. government. He confirmed that he had crossed the border and migrated from India.

As long documented in FOX 5 NY's Migrants in America, many are desperate to seek refuge in New York City, escaping various issues in their home countries. Most of Bertini and Torres's questions were met with silence, reluctance and refusal – the migrants' hesitancy rooted in fear of the unknown in this foreign new country.

With dirt on their boots, these people were visibly fatigued, a mix of fear and determination on their faces. Their desperation was apparent, the promise of the "American Dream" propelling them to see their journey's end.

How are locals reacting? 

As town supervisor, Trombley regularly deals with complaints from residents about migrants on their property. He said he sees migrants regularly crossing through his own backyard, unsure if they are "desperate families" or people "with a criminal history."

"What are the concerns among the people that live here?" Bertini asked Trombley.

"It’s the numbers. There's so many, and they're constantly dealing with it, almost from day to day," he responded. "I'm also a school bus driver, and there's very seldom a morning where there's not a radio transmission … asking the office to call Border Patrol because we've seen four, six or eight individuals, walking down one of our town roads." 

Placing calls to Border Control has become a routine part of life in these parts. Clinton County resident Joe Ashline said he regularly catches migrants on his deer camera.

"They’re not shy, they just walk down the street … You got to lock everything. Years ago, you never locked any doors around here, but now you do," he said.

Allen Racine, who works for Champlain as a highway superintendent, said he often sees evidence of migrants travels during work, finding discarded clothes, for example, on the side of the road.

Racine recalled an encounter when a young girl with a family of five started miming for food.

"She was hungry," he said.

By the numbers

46.1 million

The estimated foreign-born population, or immigrants in the country both legally and illegally, according to the Census Bureau. That accounts for 14% of the total U.S. population.

11 million

The estimated number of immigrants in the country illegally. 

1.6 million

The number of migrants the Border Patrol released with notices to appear in immigration court from January 2022 through April 2024, the Associated Press reports. Another 600,000 were released under presidential powers known as "parole." Since late 2022, the Biden administration granted entry to another 1 million migrants through new or expanded legal pathways using parole authority at land crossings or airports to stay up to two years and immediately obtain work authorization.

195,000

The estimated number of newly arrived migrants since the spring of 2022. The surge was fueled partly by Gov. Greg Abbott sending busloads of people at his state’s expense.

$5.1 billion

The amount of money New York has spent to handle the recent surge of migrants, according to a New York Times report.

16,459

The number of individuals apprehended at the U.S.-Canada border in fiscal year 2024 so far (October 2023-June 2024)

916

The number of individuals apprehended at the U.S.-Canada border in fiscal year 2021 (October 2020-September 2021)

1,278,722

The number of individuals apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2024 so far (October 2023-May 2024)

Digital Content Manager Alex Meier contributed to this report.