Kelly, Zinke reintroduce Northern Border Security Caucus in 119th Congress

January 31, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) and U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), Chairmen of the Northern Border Security Caucus, announced the reintroduction of the caucus for the 119th Congress.

The Chairmen also sent this letter to Trump administration border czar Tom Homan addressing the concerns along the Northern border and to invite Mr. Homan to meet with the caucus.

The 5,525-mile border between the U.S. and Canada is the longest international border in the world. The 24-member caucus advocates for secure borders and raises awareness of immigration issues for the 13 states between the U.S. and Canada, along with immigration issues occurring in Northern border states impacted by the Southern border crisis.

"For the last two years, the Northern Border Security Caucus has raised much-needed awareness about the issues facing states and communities in the Northern United States. When we learned more terror watchlist suspects cross through the Northern border than the Southern border, we demanded the Biden administration address this crisis. In turn, we were ignored. The Caucus looks forward to working with President Trump to enhance Northern border security in the year ahead," Rep. Kelly said.

"Finally, we have an administration that is committed to taking border security seriously and cracking down on the bad actors who are entering our country unchecked,” Rep. Zinke said. “There is a lot of work to be done to address the crisis at both borders, and the Northern Border Security Caucus is fully dedicated to working with President Trump to get that work done."

BACKGROUND

February 2023: Reps. Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Ryan Zinke (R-MT) co-founded the Northern Border Security Caucus with nearly 30 House GOP Members.
October 2023: Reps. Kelly and Zinke led a resolution to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calling on him to address the alarming number of suspects on the terror watchlist who are crossing into the United States along the Northern border with Canada.
In November 2023, Rep. Kelly previously testified before the House Judiciary Committee about the threats and vulnerabilities of an unsecured U.S. Northern border.
In March 2024, Reps. Kelly, Zinke, House Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY) led 20+ House Republicans in this letter to Mayorkas expressing "serious concern about the unprecedented surge in apprehensions along our Northern border."

Northern Border Fast Facts

Northern Land Border Encounters (by year)

FY2024: 198,929
FY2023: 189,402
FY2022: 109,535
FY2021: 27,180

In FY24, 87% of all terror watchlist suspects encountered at land border ports of entry trying to enter the U.S. were apprehended at the Northern border.

Excluding marijuana, drug smuggling has increased by 1153% along the Northern border between Fiscal Year 2021 and Fiscal Year 2023.

Ecstasy increased 329%
Cocaine increased 2,787%

Although the U.S.-Canadian border is the longest international border in the world, the U.S. Northern border has only 115 ports of entry (compared to 330 at the Southwest Border) with no performance measures to assess security between ports.

In January 2021, there were only 997 Northern land border encounters. Since then, this number has skyrocketed each month. In January 2025, there were 15,396 encounters. This is a nearly 1,500% increase in one of the coldest months of the year.