U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a 69 per cent drop in recent months in the number of encounters with migrants at the Canadian border in what it calls the Swanton Sector, which covers Vermont and portions of New York’s border with Quebec and Ontario.

The RCMP says it's looking to redeploy up to one-quarter of its eastern region workforce to areas considered an operational priority, including to the Canada-U.S. border.

The RCMP says it’s looking to redeploy up to one-quarter of its eastern region workforce to areas considered an operational priority, including to the U.S. border. U.S. president-elect Donald Trump pledged this week to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports until more is done to stem illegal border crossings and drug trafficking.