US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have nabbed more than 19,000 illegal immigrants at one sector alone along the US-Canada border during Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 – more than have been apprehended along the northern border sector over the past 17 years. 

FY 2024 ended Monday, and agents at the CPB’s Patrol's Swanton Sector have caught illegal immigrants from 97 differnt countries, sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia said.

“Border Patrol Agents in Swanton Sector have apprehended more than 19,222 subjects from 97 different countries since October 1, 2023, which is more than its last 17 fiscal years combined. Report suspicious border activity in Swanton Sector: 1-800-689-3362,” Garcia posted. 

The total of 19,222 illegal immigrants is nearly 20 times the annual number recorded in recent tallies. In previous years, it has been common to apprehend less than a thousand migrants per fiscal year. In FY 2020, CBP found 574 illegal immigrants, followed by 365 the next year.

But that number has been rising in the last two years. It climbed to 1,065 in FY 2022 and 6,925 in FY 2023, according to Border Patrol data, Fox News noted.

The Swanton Sector stretches over portions of three states and two provinces and includes 24,000 square miles and includes Vermont, as well as Clinton, Essex, Franklin, St. Lawrence and Herkimer counties of New York and Coos, Grafton and Carroll counties of New Hampshire, according to Fox. The provinces of Quebec and Ontario are on the other side of the border, Fox noted.

The Biden-Harris administration is examining ways to speed up the processing of illegal immigrants at the northern border, given the explosion in cases. President Joe Biden just acknowledged that the US has allowed over 100,000 refugees into the country during 2023 – and insists that wasn’t enough. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has blamed the Biden-Harris administration for allowing open-border policies to facilitate the entry of millions of illegal immigrants. Among the illegal immigrants in the US, there are over 13,000 convicted murderers and over 420,000 with criminal records.