The number of individuals apprehended for illegally crossing the northern border has reportedly increased by 142 percent from last year.

CBS News reported on Monday that Border Patrol agents caught 445 people entering the U.S. from Canada during the first six months of 2018. Just 184 individuals were apprehended for illegally crossing the northern border in the first six months of 2017.

The network notes that the northern border is particularly easy to cross, which makes it very difficult for agents to secure.

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"It's a tough challenge to go ahead and take the limited resources we have and work in such a vast area," Norm Lague, a Border Patrol agent, told CBS, adding that it is impossible to cover the entire 5,525-mile-long northern border.

About 400,000 people and over 1.6 billion goods legally cross the northern border each day, according to CBS News. In 2017, 3,027 people who were in the country illegally were apprehended by Border Patrol agents who work along the northern border.

CBS reports that the figure contrasts to the more than 300,000 individuals who were captured by agents along the southern border in 2017.

But the network also notes that of those apprehended along the northern border, about 1,489 were from Mexico. Mexican citizens reportedly do not need a visa to get into Canada, and one-way flights to Montreal and Toronto are relatively cheap.

Border Patrol agents told CBS News that once there, they can get into the U.S. much more easily than through the southern border.

"The northern border is much more vast," Lague said. "The terrain is very difficult to work in, and we do not have the resources at our disposal that the southern border has."

The news regarding the uptick in illegal crossings at the northern border comes as President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE advocates for the U.S. to implement a more hard-line approach to immigration.