House Republicans aim to make Canada-U.S. border part of national security debate

House Republicans drafted the Canada-U.S. border into their partisan arsenal Tuesday, urging President Joe Biden to crack down on the flow of illegal drugs and migrants not just across America's southern frontier, but its northern one as well.

House Republicans drafted the Canada-U.S. border into their partisan arsenal Tuesday, urging President Joe Biden to crack down on the flow of illegal drugs and migrants not just across America's southern frontier, but its northern one as well.

The new 28-member Northern Border Security Caucus is focused exclusively on what it calls a badly under-resourced, largely unnoticed national security concern that just happens to be the longest international border in the world.

One after another, members of the newly convened coalition, Republicans all, acknowledged that the perils of the northern border pale in comparison to the burgeoning migratory crisis south of the Rio Grande.

But a steady increase in recent months in the number of "encounters" between border agents and people lacking U.S. legal status suggests it's a problem that will get worse, they told a news conference outside the Capitol.

"It's almost like if we don't recognize it, it doesn't exist," said Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly, who co-chairs the caucus with Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana.

Issues of specific concern to Canada often struggle to get oxygen in Congress. But with election-minded Republicans anxious to score points against a Democratic president vulnerable on the immigration file, the northern border presents a novel way of adding fuel to the political fire.

To be sure, the rhetoric from Tuesday's news conference was as fiery as it gets, often making it hard to know which border they were talking about.