As if the crisis at the southern border wasn’t already bad enough, it appears the northern border is becoming a growing problem as well. As illegal immigrants and asylum seekers seek out multiple ways to enter the United States, the border shared with Canada is receiving more attention as cartel smugglers adjust their tactics.

A New York Post exclusive details how residents of towns close to the Canadian border are increasingly dealing with people trying to cross over into the U.S.

Unsettling Post footage and interviews with US residents along the Canadian border offer a rare glimpse into the thriving migrant smuggling operation that has taken hold up north in addition to the debacle to the south.

Residents of bucolic Swanton, Vt. — a town of about 6,500 people located just across Lake Champlain from New York and about a 10-minute drive from the Canadian border — have been getting a troubling firsthand look at the US’s northern illegal migrant crisis for months.

The town’s plentiful woods make the leafy hamlet an ideal spot for hunters — and also provide ample camouflage for smugglers, who have become so rampant that some locals are packing pistols to protect themselves and turning into amateur sleuths to help thwart them.

“Now I’ve got the Border Patrol guys on speed dial,” local Chris Feeley, 52, recently grimly acknowledged.

According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, the number of migrants illegally entering the US at the northern border last year topped 12,200 — a 240% spike from 2022.

Of those, some 70% of the illegal crossings took place along the 295-mile Swanton Sector, which includes upstate New York, New Hampshire and Vermont.

The situation must be growing more dire if the residents living in this area are resorting to carrying pistols with them at all times. Indeed, many are taking this step on the advice of Border Patrol officials.

Feeley said that in the past year or so, things have gotten “real crazy” in his quiet wooded slice of northwestern Vermont — even admitting he now carries a pistol when he goes out bow hunting, on the advice of border agents.

“The Border Patrol actually told us, ‘You guys might want to put a pistol in your backpack’ because nine out of 10 of them are just here for a better life, but there’s that one guy that’s got a rap sheet.”

Kaitlynn Pease, a 22-year-old volunteer firefighter close to the northern border, told the Post about early morning sightings of “getaway vehicles” positioned to collect migrants. “Once you see the New Jersey plates, you know they’re a getaway car,” she said.

Northern border crossings have become more commonplace after illegals and asylum seekers realized that it is much easier to sneak into the country from Canada than it is from Mexico. Those who can afford a plane ticket from Mexico to Canada are taking advantage. This has created yet another problem as the Border Patrol is already stretched thin trying to manage the influx coming from the south.

Meanwhile, the steady stream of individuals crossing the border has not abated, and America’s major cities are now bearing more of the brunt as Texas continues shipping them to blue areas. The Biden administration still has yet to take any tangible action to deal with the crisis at both borders. Continued infighting and disagreements among members of President Joe Biden’s immigration team have pretty much rendered the White House’s response to the chaos impotent. Unfortunately, it appears this will remain the norm for the time being.