Wednesday, North Dakota officials spoke out about the border catastrophe. As more migrants cross, crime, drugs, and homelessness hit northern border communities.
“People who are not supposed to be there are breaking into farmers’ fields and damaging crops.” “Because the border isn’t staffed, it’s up to the people who live there to call the police when they see something. This takes police resources out of our small towns,” Rebecca Davis, Executive Director of the Walhalla Chamber of Commerce, told “Fox & Friends First” on Wednesday, before she spoke at a House field hearing in the state.
Fox News reports that physical crime has gone up by 7% in North Dakota since 2023, homelessness has gone up by 29%, and drug overdose deaths have gone up by an amazing 75% since 2019.
Davis also said that fewer staff hours at the Walhalla Port of Entry have made it harder to trade and travel with Canada. As a result, people have to drive 39 miles to the next closest 24-hour port of entry.
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement held a meeting on Wednesday called “The Biden Border Crisis: North Dakota Perspectives.” Davis was one of four people who spoke.
“Lack of adequate border staff and reduced hours has had severe humanitarian impacts,” she told the Republicans. She also said that families of migrants have been found dead and are being told that crossing the northern border is “easier” than crossing the southern border.
It’s not a Democratic or Republican issue, Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., said; it’s a “American issue,” and policy is what needs to be looked at.
“American people need to understand that they are losing the greatest nation that the world has ever known, and it’s almost happening on our watch,” Kelly told the hearing.
In court, North Dakota’s attorney general, Drew Wrigley, said that the “situation has deteriorated over recent years” because “the Biden administration’s refusal to shut down the border” is having “negative law enforcement impacts” on the state.
Wrigley said, “Our neighborhoods are in danger.”
Cass County Sheriff Jesse Jahner and the attorney general both said the state has become a target for drugs coming from Mexico over the southern border, especially fentanyl.
Jahner said that jails are too full and overcrowded because of drug abuse, mental illness, and homelessness. He also said that his county is near two major roads, which makes drug trafficking “easy and appealing” to people in his area.
“It is time to shut down the borders or come up with structured policy… that starts putting citizens of our country first,” he stated.
In the past, Jahner said that when he contacted Border Patrol about illegal crosses, he was told that there were not enough resources to help law enforcement.
The sheriff of Renville County, which is right on the border between the U.S. and Canada, said the same thing. He warned that a lack of resources is leaving the border “wide open” to possible national security threats as large numbers of unscreened immigrants come into the U.S.
Roger Hutchinson said in court that the border crossings are causing police to get calls about dead bodies, high-speed chases, property damage, and saves for people in need.
To show their “serious concern” about a “unprecedented surge in apprehensions” seen along the northern border during a “orchestrated” crisis by the Biden administration, 22 Republicans in the House wrote a letter to Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, in March.
