A version of this story was first published by the Newport Dispatch on Oct. 24, 2024.
NEWPORT CENTER — When Justin LeBlanc’s sons set up game cameras on their family farm in Newport Center, they weren’t looking to document illegal border crossings. But over several nights, that’s exactly what they captured.
The first images were recorded Sunday, just hours after the trail cameras were installed near the intersection of Leadville Road and Lake Road. The following night, a second camera in the same area captured another group, including what appeared to be several men led by a man wearing a turban.
“The one in the front is their guide,” LeBlanc said. “He’s the one going back and forth with the different groups of people.”
While those individuals weren’t apprehended, U.S. Border Patrol agents later detained a separate group in LeBlanc’s driveway in a subsequent incident, LeBlanc said.
Border Patrol responded swiftly to the initial camera footage, according to LeBlanc. “They did a real good job of coming right out and looking at the location and then they had a big meeting with each other to figure out a game plan on what they were going to do to try to catch these guys,” he said.
The activity isn’t isolated. LeBlanc described how a neighbor recently witnessed five people emerge from the woods and quickly enter a waiting vehicle on nearby Leadville Road before speeding away. Reports of suspicious vehicles in the area have become commonplace, with some residents noting cars with out-of-state plates, including New York registrations, frequently appearing in connection with these incidents.
“This is an everyday thing,” LeBlanc said, expressing concern for his family’s safety on their farm, where they produce hay for horses and dairy cows, and regularly hunt and hike. “It’s definitely concerning, and we definitely have an uneasy feeling,” he said. “You can’t really let the kids go alone anymore. It just puts a spin on things that we’re not used to.”
As VTDigger reported in August, Border Patrol has reported a record number of migrants crossing the international border from Canada into the U.S. — particularly in the region known as the Swanton Sector, which includes Vermont, New Hampshire and portions of New York.
The most recent figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the border patrol, shows that agents from the Swanton Sector apprehended 19,385 people in the year ending in September. That’s up from 6,925 in the previous year and 1,065 the year before that. (The latter figures also include those who were expelled under Title 42, a pandemic-era public health order.)
Apprehensions appear to have peaked in June, when 3,310 people were detained in the Swanton sector. The numbers have since declined to 1,575 in September, though that remains well above the 956 recorded in September 2023.
Border Patrol increased its staffing in the area in response to the surge, Special Operations supervisor Josh Cozzens told VTDigger in August, stationing groups of 20 to 25 agents across the sector — some of whom were reassigned from the southern border.
“Our agents are very busy,” Cozzens said at the time. “We have seen a number of apprehensions that we’ve never seen in our recorded history in this area.”
A Border Patrol spokesperson said Friday that he could not immediately comment on the incidents in Newport Center.
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LeBlanc’s camera footage has circulated widely on social media, generating thousands of shares and comments from community members.
“A lot of people were unaware that this was going on and some are still in disbelief,” LeBlanc said. “This is not a joke.”
VTDigger contributed reporting to this story.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Newport Center family’s game cameras document border security concerns.