Canada Yielding 87 Per Cent of All Terror Suspects Stopped at U.S. Border Crossings

Of the 410 terror suspects stopped at a U.S. land border crossing in the past year, 87 per cent came from Canada, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

And this figure has long been cited by U.S. politicians as justification to tighten security at the Canadian border — a cause now being championed by incoming U.S. president Donald Trump.

On Monday, Trump threatened 25 per cent tariffs against both Canada and Mexico if they didn’t tighten border security. “This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this invasion of our Country!” Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social.

The threat has already yielded an emergency meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provincial premiers. In addition, both Alberta and Ontario have pledged to independently start patrolling their own southern borders.

Nevertheless, one of the immediate reactions from Canadian politicians was to wonder why they’d gotten lumped in with Mexico. It was the Mexican border, after all, where U.S. authorities have recorded more than seven million illegal entries in just the last three years.

“To compare us to Mexico is the most insulting thing I have ever heard from our friends and closest allies, the United States of America,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Tuesday.

But U.S. politicians in northern states have been sounding the alarm on the Canadian border for some time.

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When Trump picked Tom Homan to be his “border czar,” Homan immediately pledged to address the “huge national security issue” of the U.S. northern border.

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Homan said if a terror group or criminal organization wants to slip someone illegally into the U.S., it’s worth paying a premium to do it from Canada, as there’s less chance they will be intercepted.

“They know there’s a lot fewer officers up here,” said Homan.

Terror suspects being attracted by the relative sparseness of the Canadian border is also something that’s been brought up by Pennylvania Congressman Mike Kelly. “Why would they come in through the northern border? Because it’s virtually unwatched, that’s why,” he said in a May interview.

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In the last fiscal year, 358 individuals on the terror watchlist were stopped at a Canadian border crossing, as compared to 52 stopped at a Mexican border crossing.

And this has been the ratio for the entire post-COVID era.

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In addition to yielding outsized rates of terror suspects, the Canadian border has also yielded unprecedented highs of illegal entries into the United States.

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