The profitable and growing human smuggling market across the border attracts local and international criminal organizations looking to exploit the transportation of vulnerable people from Canada to the United States, according to an RCMP officer overseeing border police.

Matthew Bertrand, head of the Serious and Organized Crime and Border Security division at the RCMP, said the force recently recorded a huge number of interceptions of smuggling attempts southbound across the border, especially along the Ontario and Quebec borders with New York and Vermont.

Bertrand said there is a lot of money to be made from smuggling individuals across our borders.

Numbers from US border authorities also show a significant increase over the past year in the number of people smuggled primarily through a forested and rural borderlands area where eastern Ontario and Quebec meet the United States.

Between October 2022 and September 2023, US Border Patrol agents working in the Swanton sector recorded 6,925 arrests of people from 79 countries, all crossing irregularly from Canada — a 550 percent year-over-year increase, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.

The US Border Patrol also said it arrested 71 people crossing illegally from Canada through this area during the last weekend of November alone.

Nearly half of all arrests involved Mexican citizens, and Indian citizens accounted for about 14 percent of the total.

The police have limited tools to stop people...

The police are responsible for monitoring the Canadian border between official customs border crossings, which fall under the authority of the Canada Border Services Agency.

Bertrand said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police currently have limited legal tools to prevent people from traveling to the border.

He also added that if they intercept individuals before they cross the border, they are actually not committing any crime. We have no authority to question or initiate an investigation at that time.

Bertrand said that sometimes people are dropped off near the border to attempt to cross eventually, but there isn't much the police can do.

He also said that it is very difficult to identify criminal elements to charge these individuals and bring them to court.

An ongoing investigation by CBC News found that Canada is increasingly being sold as an easy and safe alternative route to enter the United States, unlike the more dangerous routes and crossings on the northern Mexico border.

US court records show some human smuggling organizations from Mexico offer arranging plane tickets to Toronto and Montreal and passports and electronic travel permits as part of a comprehensive package.