EMERSON, Manitoba – Border agents at this port of entry see few people trying to evade them southbound into the United States. Most instead are going north \to get into Canada. A municipal official in Emerson-Franklin, Reeve Dave Carlson, expressed surprise that fthe our people who died in a blizzard were going south. “If you look at the political climate on both sides of the border, it’s just mind-boggling to me that anyone had that sense of desperation to try and cross in extreme conditions,” he said. Carlson noted that northbound border crossings into Canada on foot had increased in 2016 following the election of former U.S. president Donald Trump. That December, two men lost their fingers to severe frostbite while walking through as blizzard into Manitoba. A few months later, a woman died of hypothermia near the border on the U.S. side. In 2019 a pregnant woman who walked across the border was rescued after she became trapped in a snowbank and went into labor. Officials have had clues for weeks that organized human smuggling was going on. Footprints found in snow were made by the same make of boots worn by the new rescued migrants. Those findings were on December 12, December 22 and January 12.
Ports of entry
18 in North Dakota: Portal North Portal, Peace Garden, Neche Gretna, and Pembina Emerson. The other border crossings are Fortuna Oungre, Ambrose Torquay, Noonan Estevan, Northgate, Sherwood Carievale, Antler Lyleton, Westhope Coulter, Carbury Goodlands, St. John Lena, Hansboro Cartwright, Sarles Crystal City, Hannah Snowflake, Maida Windygates, and Walhalla Winkler.
Eight Minnesota: Warroad Sprague, Baudette Rainy River, International Falls Fort Frances, and Grand Portage Pigeon River. The other border crossings are Lancaster Tolstoi, Pinecreek Piney, Roseau South Junction, and Angle Inlet.