NH primary revives security concerns along northern border, calls for wall

As the Republican primaries take center stage in the Granite State during the week of Jan. 21, there are increased calls for a border wall along the U.S.-Canada frontier. Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley became the latest to sound the alarm about increased incursions at the northern border.

“I think we do whatever it takes to keep people out,” Haley said when speaking to reporters Saturday, Jan. 20.

When asked by the New York Times if that would mean building a wall, Haley said, “If that’s what it takes to keep them out, we will do a wall, we will do any sort of border patrol that we need.”

Haley isn’t the only Republican setting her sights north.

Before dropping out of the primaries on Sunday, Jan. 21, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, R, recently supported building a barrier along “trouble spots” in the U.S.-Canada border.

Also, Vivek Ramaswamy, a tech entrepreneur who ended his bid for the GOP nomination last week, has called for a northern border wall for months. At the third Republican primary debate on Nov. 8, 2023, Ramaswamy made his stance clear.

“I’m the only candidate on this stage, as far as I’m aware who has actually visited the northern border,” Ramaswamy said. “There was enough fentanyl that was captured just on the northern border last year to kill 3 million Americans. So, we’ve got to just skate to where the puck is going, not just where the puck is.”

Don’t just build the wall, build both walls.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump is largely steering clear of the northern border debate. However, Trump remains a major advocate for enhanced barriers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

As for Democrats and the Biden administration, they have railed against border walls. However, despite the administration’s opposition, back in October, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would be constructing 20 miles of border wall in Starr County, Texas.

According to the Washington Post, the White House contended its hand was forced, asking Congress to reappropriate Trump-era funds but saying lawmakers refused, forcing the Biden administration into construction.

When asked if President Joe Biden believed border walls work, the president routinely denies it. However, the president’s words appeared to be at odds with what the DHS said.

The agency said in a statement that the construction was desperately needed to “prevent unlawful entries into the United States.”

While the crisis at the southern border captured much of the nation’s attention in the month of October, during that same time-frame, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella warned of a surge in illegal activity at the northern border.

The New York Times reported that more than 6,900 people tried to cross the northern border from 2022 to 2023, an increase of more than 1,000 migrants from years past, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Advocates criticized the attorney general and Gov. Chris Sununu, R-N.H., as they called for an increased law enforcement presence at the northern border. Critics claimed the officials did not have the data to justify the move. However, while Formella acknowledged the federal government only releases numbers for the entire three-state region, he defended his stance, as reported by WMUR.

“It’s only common sense if crossings are up that much across the sector that New Hampshire’s portion of the border, that’s 25% of the border, would also have seen an increase in crossings,” Formella said.

In October 2023, Sununu announced a new initiative stretching from 2024 into 2025 that will add 10,000 patrol hours to officers at the northern border. The patrols will be made up of state and local law enforcement. These operations will be in addition to the 600-700 hours the feds currently conduct.

Gov. Sununu has yet to propose a wall, but Republican voters in the small town of Pittsburg, New Hampshire, have noticed the rhetoric from Haley, DeSantis and Ramaswamy. Residents told the New York Times that the prospect of a wall leaves them torn.

Many in the town of Pittsburg have family right on the other side of the border, and people from Canada also come into town to work. However, some residents did admit that they have seen what appears to be migrants walking or wading across the northern line.

Officials argue that those crossing the northern border is a matter of national security. U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed last year that the majority of crossings of people from the terrorist watchlist were at the northern border.