New Hampshire announces new state task force to protect the northern border amidst record illegal immigration
In the first 11 months of the 2023 fiscal year, 61,000 more asylum seekers entered from the north than the entire previous year.
New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu announced the creation of the Northern Border Alliance Task Force to stop the entry of illegal immigrants. The northern border saw a new record of illegal immigration in 2023. The new force will be made up of state, county and local officers and will operate independently from the federal Border Patrol in the area. In the 2023 fiscal year, which is still missing September data, more than 170,000 asylum seekers have entered the country through the northern border, 61,000 more than in all of 2022.
Sununu criticizes inaction by the Biden administration
Accompanied by Attorney General John M. Formella and Department of Homeland Security Commissioner Robert L. Quinn, Sununu stressed that the state has been forced to take this initiative as a result of the Biden administration's lack of action to secure the border.
The measure will add 10,000 hours of patrol to the northern border
The new body will be under the supervision and control of the attorney general, who highlighted that this measure "will add ten thousand patrol hours near the border through June 30, 2025. This will shorten response times to calls for service in the region, increase the effectiveness of crime detection and prevention in a remote area of the State, and enhance border security efforts.”
Although the task force will be under full control of New Hampshire, Sununu noted that it "will also cooperate, as necessary, with federal law enforcement officials in the enforcement of federal criminal immigration laws."