(Headline USA) New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu blasted the Biden administration this week over the border crisis, pointing out that illegal immigrants are exploiting the U.S.’s northern border as well.
Sununu announced on Thursday that he will use $1.4 million in funding from the state’s current budget to boost patrols by state and local law enforcement along New Hampshire’s border with Canada.
While he conceded that the crisis at the southern border is far more dire, “there have been more apprehensions along our northern border in just this past year than in the last 10 years combined,” Sununu noted.
“Encounters with individuals on the terrorist watch list at the ports of entry on the northern border have doubled since 2017,” he added. “There’s national security implications to securing the northern border that are becoming more and more obvious every day.”
Along with state attorney general John Formella, “it is made very clear to us” that law enforcement officials along the border “need more targeted resources. We need to provide an all hands-on-deck approach,” Sununu said.
“We asked the federal government for help. We’ve been denied,” he said of the Biden administration. “There’s nothing that’s come from the federal government. No additional efforts out of the federal government.”
Left-wing activist Sebastian Fuentes, who serves as the political director for Rights & Democracy NH, claimed concern about illegal immigration across the northern border is “manufactured” and “a political stunt.”
Sununu, however, dismissed the criticism.
“I laugh at anyone who tries to criticize us when we’re the only ones actually doing anything and taking the issue seriously,” he said.
According to border officials, there were 7,633 encounters with illegal immigrants across the northern border through the end of July this fiscal year. In FY 2022, there were 2,238, and 916 in all of FY 2021.
