WASHINGTON — Newly released data show an increase in the number of people taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol in the region that includes Vermont, although the numbers for the country overall were down in fiscal 2017.
Arrests and deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement increased in New England over previous years as well.
Nationwide, the Border Patrol reported that fiscal 2017, which ended Sept. 30, saw the lowest number of detentions of people illegally crossing the border on record.
Numbers released by the Department of Homeland Security recently show the Border Patrol apprehended 310,531 people in 2017, down about a quarter from the previous year, when 415,816 were apprehended across all 20 sectors.
However, in the Swanton sector, which includes the border with Canada across New Hampshire, Vermont and part of New York, the number went up.
The Border Patrol reported apprehending 449 people in the Swanton sector in the most recent year — up from 291 the previous year and 341 the year before that.
Stephanie Malin, a regional spokesperson for the Border Patrol, attributed the increase in the Swanton sector to “a more proactive enforcement posture” over the last year.
She said there have been more checkpoint operations and transportation checks. The agency also increased intelligence operations, she said.
While the number of detentions in the sector increased, the number of people detained who were identified as coming from Canada — either because agents had strong reason to suspect so, or because they admitted it — decreased. During the course of the year, the Border Patrol apprehended 165 people who were suspected of entering the country from Canada without permission — a decline from previous years.
The Border Patrol intercepted 214 people in that category in fiscal 2016 and 243 the year before that.
Malin said others may be identified as having entered through Mexico, or the point of entry might not be known.
Meanwhile, data from the ICE Boston area of responsibility, which includes Vermont, show that immigration arrests were up in the New England states, as they were across the country.
ICE arrested 2,834 suspected unauthorized immigrants in fiscal 2017 in New England — an increase of 50 percent from the previous year, when 1,858 people were arrested.
That mirrors the national spike in immigration arrests. There were 143,470 in 2017, up 30 percent from 110,104.
Nationally, deportations were down, according to ICE’s numbers. ICE statistics for deportations include people who are arrested by other agencies, including Customs and Border Protection.
The agency reported that 226,119 immigrants were removed from the country in 2017, a decrease of about 6 percent from the year before.
However, the New England region bucked the national trend. The number of people who were removed from the country spiked by almost a third to 1,942 in 2017.
