9 detained, some treated for hypothermia after Canada-U.S. border crossing incident: sheriff

Nine people who tried to illegally cross from Canada into the U.S. were detained on Tuesday, after the group called police for help as some were experiencing hypothermia in a flooded bog in northern Minnesota, U.S. officials say.

Steve Gust, the sheriff in Minnesota's Roseau County, said some in the group were detained after calling 911 in the morning for help. Others were sent to hospital for treatment for hypothermia, he told The Canadian Press.

In addition to the nine people who were detained, one person was still missing, Gust said.

The group was trying to enter Minnesota from Manitoba through a wooded area near Sprague, Man., about 145 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg, he said. Roseau is about 20 kilometres south of Minnesota's shared border with Manitoba.

Steven Bansbach, a spokesperson with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said U.S. border patrol agents and multiple first responders rescued the group of nine people after locating them in flooded bog west of Warroad, Minn. — about 25 kilometres southeast of Sprague — and provided first aid. 

The U.S. agents were initially notified around 4:50 a.m. by RCMP, who had received an emergency phone call from someone in the group, Bansbach said.

'Harsh weather conditions'

The nine were "in distress after exposure to harsh weather conditions," he said in an emailed statement, and were taken to medical facilities for treatment related to cold-weather exposure.

The agents determined seven out of the nine people in the group had illegally entered the United States and did not have any documentation on them allowing them to be legally in the U.S., he said. 

After being medically cleared, they will be taken to a U.S. Border Patrol station for further processing, Bansbach said.

U.S. authorities had reached out to Manitoba RCMP for help searching an area of the border near Sprague for a possible missing person earlier in the day, RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Julie Courchaine said.

"We have officers on scene at this time and RCMP search and rescue are headed there as well," she said in an emailed statement early Tuesday afternoon.

When contacted by CBC News, the Canada Border Services Agency said in a statement that it was not involved in what it termed the "rescue effort."

The latest border crossing incident comes just over a year after a family of four from India froze to death trying to walk south across the border near Emerson, Man.

Last month, Canada negotiated a deal with the U.S. to allow Canada to turn away migrants coming north at irregular crossings.

That deal relates to the Safe Third Country Agreement and means migrants who arrive in Canada from the U.S. at unofficial ports of entry will no longer be allowed to make asylum claims.

The change took effect two days after it was announced last month, enabling border agents to turn away asylum seekers trying to get into Canada as long as they are found within two weeks of arriving in Canada.