By Joe Crowe From Newsmax

The number of people caught illegally crossing the border from Canada into the U.S. is up 142 percent, CBS News has learned.

Border Patrol agents apprehended 445 people entering the United States from Canada in the first six months of 2018. During the same period in 2017, that number was 184, the CBS report said.

The northern border is very easy to cross over, which makes it difficult to secure, the CBS report noted. For example, an unguarded metal fence is the only barrier to smugglers entering a remote corner of New York state.

Many official entry ports, such as a floating dock near Lake Champlain, are unmanned at night. Border Patrol agents rely on local residents, patrols, and sensors to alert them to possible crossings, the CBS News report said.

The U.S. – Canada border is 5,525 miles long, the longest and busiest land boundary in the world. About 400,000 people and more than $1.6 billion in goods legally cross the U.S. – Canada border each day, the report said.

“It’s a tough challenge to go ahead and take the limited resources we have and work in such a vast area,” said Norm Lague, a border patrol agent, CBS News reported.

The difference between crossings at the northern and southern border are stark: Agents at the northern border apprehended 3,027 people who were in the country illegally in 2017, while agents along the southern border apprehended more than 300,000.

“The northern border is much more vast. The terrain is very difficult to work in, and we do not have the resources at our disposal that the southern border has,” said Lague, CBS News reported.

“This border was created in a different time. It was created as the world’s friendliest border between two countries,” said author Porter Fox, CBS News reported.

The Canadian federal government spent more than $270 million on people who crossed the border illegally, Global News reported August 3.

Image: CBS News: Illegal Border Crossings From Canada Into US Up 142 Percent
© 2018 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
For more on this story go to: https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/us-border-crossings-canada-illegal-border-crossings/2018/08/06/id/875669/?ns_mail_uid=6952f1f9-507d-4a20-8cc0-0a1db158d76e&ns_mail_job=DM4557_08062018&s=acs&dkt_nbr=010502k62xds