Drones, helicopters being considered for U.S. border, public safety minister says

By David Baxter, The Canadian Press on November 26, 2024.

Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marc Miller arrives to appear before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, in West Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

OTTAWA – Canada is considering supplying the RCMP and border agency with more resources including drones, helicopters and personnel in case of a “surge” at the border, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Tuesday in response to Donald Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on Canadian imports into the U.S.

The president-elect threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports unless action is taken to stem the flow of both migrants and illegal drugs crossing the border.

“As everyone is aware, thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before,” Trump said on Truth Social on Monday night.

LeBlanc said his office has been working with finance officials, the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency “for months” to see what is needed and feasible.

The minister added that Canada shares many of the same concerns as the Americans when it comes to illegal migration, and drugs and other contraband making its way across the border. LeBlanc said Canadian agencies work collaboratively with their U.S. counterparts.

“For decades, this collaborative work happening literally daily with American authorities and Canadian authorities has allowed us to keep both countries safe, including dealing with some of the real challenges around the opioid crisis,” LeBlanc said.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller was asked on Tuesday about deploying more officers to oversee the New York-Vermont border area, which sees the highest rates of illegal crossings from Canada into the United States.

He cautioned that there is no comparison to the flow of migrants entering the U.S. from Mexico.

“It’s the equivalent on a yearly basis with a significant weekend at the Mexico border. At the same time, it’s not something I want to not take seriously, because it is serious,” Miller said.

“We have a job to not make our problems the Americans’ problems and they have a job not to make their problems ours.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows its officers recorded nearly 200,000 encounters at the northern border between October 2023 and September 2024. The same period in 2022 saw more than 109,000 encounters and there were around 32,000 in 2020.

The term “encounters” includes apprehensions, people who are deemed inadmissible and those who are expelled from the U.S.

Between October 2023 and September 2024, U.S. officials recorded more than two million encounters at the Mexican border. The two prior years also saw more than 2 million encounters each at the southern border.

Chief border patrol agent Robert Garcia said last month on X that agents in the Swanton Sector, which covers Vermont’s border with Quebec, apprehended more than 19,000 people from 97 countries in the last year – more than the last 17 years combined.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it also seized nearly 5,000 kilograms of illegal drugs at the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024. That included 19.5 kilograms of fentanyl.

Comparatively, border agents seized nearly 125,000 kilograms of narcotics at the border with Mexico, including almost 10,000 kilograms of fentanyl.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, two milligrams of fentanyl is a potentially fatal dose.

Cannabis is by far the most commonly seized drug coming from Canada, accounting for almost 60 per cent of total seizures. From Mexico it’s methamphetamine, accounting for about 57 per cent of seizures at the southern border.

Drug seizures coming from Canada to the U.S. are down significantly from the prior two years, according to border patrol data: about 25,000 kilograms of narcotics were seized between October 2022 and September 2023, down from about 27,200 kilograms in the year before.

Both Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet called on the Trudeau government to ensure the border is secure on Tuesday.

Poilievre focused on government data that was raised at the immigration committee on Monday that said 4.9 million people will have their Canadian visas expire by the end of December 2025.

In question period Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the “overwhelming majority” of people leave when their visas expire and there are measures in the immigration system to deal with cases where that does not happen.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she is open to talks with the Trump administration on the tariff issue, but said drugs were a “public health and consumption” issue in the U.S. She added most of the weapons entering Mexico are smuggled in through the U.S.

In recent months the RCMP have announced two significant operations with ties to Mexican drug cartels.

This includes the arrest of three men in Surrey, B.C., earlier this month, who police say are connected to an organized crime group with ties to Mexican drug cartels.

Police seized “multiple kilos” of illicit drugs, and said the accused were allegedly “planning large-scale distribution” of drugs out of Surrey.

In October, the RCMP, FBI and other policing partners arrested nine Canadians in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

The accused are alleged to have ties to a Mexico cartel-linked criminal network. Charges include murder, conspiracy to commit murder and drug trafficking.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 26, 2024.

– With files from The Associated Press