Millions of illegal immigrants have streamed across our Southern border over the last year and a half, coming from places like Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela, and various countries in the Middle East. But our northern border–the longest unguarded border in the world, as I learned in elementary school–has never seen many illegal crossings.
So this story, which appeared originally on Patch and was picked up by my colleague Bill Glahn, is curious. I will quote Bill:
While all of the attention of late has been on apprehensions of migrants at the southern border, the northern border made the news last week.
The U.S. Border Patrol issued a press release on Friday, Oct. 7, about an operation conducted last month near the Minnesota/Canadian border.
On Sept. 25, an agent from the patrol’s Warroad office checked out a report of two vehicles illegally crossing the border near Roseau, Minnesota. The agent located one vehicle at a gas station, and found one UK national and three Irish nationals. The other vehicle took off.
It was found the next day at a restaurant in Bemidji. Eight more illegal migrants were found, seven from the U.K. and one from Ireland.
Since when do we get illegal immigrants from Ireland and the U.K.? They are generally happy where they are, and can easily get here legally. This is a developing story. Maybe these miscreants are incipient terrorists, or maybe it was all a misunderstanding. But our Northern border is porous, and if terrorists or other bad actors want to cross, there is little to stop them.
Bill Glahn reminds us that Northern crossings do not always end well:
More common, unfortunately, are events like the tragic case from earlier this year when a group of migrants from India froze to death attempting a winter crossing of the northern border.
Maybe there is something to this story, and maybe there isn’t. We will have a better idea when the illegal aliens have been identified. For now, let’s just say that it is curious.
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