PORTER — The line to get into town hall on Thursday night started forming at 4 p.m. and winded into the parking lot. Plenty of vehicles lined up on Route 18 after the parking lot had filled up.
The capacity audience of 160 residents then heard U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers better explain the rise in illegal crossings on the lower Niagara River over the past few months.
Niagara Falls Station Commander Brady Waikel said that since November, border patrol agents had responded to 20 such incidents along the river, a significant increase from the typical three to four a year they normally had seen. He called most of the people caught economic migrants, wanting to come into the United States for work.
“I’ve yet to catch a single person that says, ‘I want to live in Niagara Falls,’ ” Waikel said. “Every one of them is trying to go somewhere else.”
The majority of people the agents caught crossing were single adult men, found all along the river but mostly in the Village of Youngstown, Lewiston Landing, and by Joseph Davis State Park and Stella Niagara. The number of people found per boat ranged from a single person on a tiny raft to four or five boats launched at the same time, to inflatable boats with four people in them.
At 4 a.m. Thursday morning, border agents found an 18-foot-long aluminum boat with two adult females, one of whom was pregnant, and a teenager.
Those they encounter are most commonly from Mexico, India, Pakistan, Columbia, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and every Central American country.
Waikel said this issue dates back to the Border Patrol’s establishment in 1924, with the initial Lewiston detachment looking out for liquor and human smugglers.
“We’ve always had rafts and people crossing the river,” Waikel said. “We’ve always had drugs crossing the river. What has changed between now and then? It’s the frequency.”
Niagara County Sheriff Mike Filicetti said they have put out extra patrol cars and boats along the river, with other agencies working hand-in-hand with border patrol. Lewiston Police Chief Frank Previte said that when he started with the department 30 years ago, finding these rafts was a once- or twice-a-year occurrence.
“We’re not dealing with thousands of people coming across,” Filicetti said. “The concern is, as the weather gets warmer, what is it going to look like?”
While border agents have caught gang members and sex offenders, with one even assaulting an agent trying to escape, they have not harmed any area residents. Those caught are given a fresh set of clothes and warm food before being sent to the Buffalo Service Processing Center in Batavia where they are ultimately deported in most cases.
Area agencies have not seen the same capacity issues as along the southern border. None of the people caught have claimed asylum.
So what is to blame for all this? Waikel said these migrants travel to Canada due to its electronic travel authorization program, making it easier to travel there without a visa. After they arrive, they connect with smuggler networks which put them in the dangerous situation of crossing the Niagara River at night in the middle of winter for monetary gain.
Some questions the audience asked were about border patrol’s assets, how the Canadian authorities are handling this, and what if they happen to be fishing at night. There were also complaints about agents not responding to calls.
While border patrol agents said they will catch anyone who tries crossing the river, Waikel said their main focus is going after the smugglers putting these people in real danger. He did not give out exact numbers about the people crossing because that level of information is being used to put together cases against the smugglers.
Not all of those who crossed the border illegally have been caught, so the law enforcement officers in attendance encouraged residents to call them if they saw anything suspicious.
Porter Town Supervisor Duffy Johnston said he wants to do another meeting like this in the future — but in a larger venue.