Border Officials Need $23M to Handle Immigration Crisis

Some 75,000 young illegal immigrants are expected to surge over the U.S.-Mexico border this year and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border needs an additional $23 million to handle the crisis.

The Washington Examiner reports that customs Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske has told House appropriators his agency needs the funding to "assure we can respond to that potential surge."

In addition, Kerlikowske wants another $12.5 million to deal with thousands of unaccompanied illegal children and families that have already crossed the border.

But some border funding is about to dry up, with the federal government deploying fewer agents to patrol the border by next fiscal year, KRGV-TV reports.

Under a proposed budget released by the Department of Homeland Security, 300 fewer agents are being budgeted for in 2017. That will give the agency about 21,000 agents in total next year.

Border patrol agents are worried.

"We have people turning themselves in at unprecedented rates. Then we have the people that are always coming in illegally," National Border Patrol Council Local 3307 Vice President Chris Cabrera told KRGV.

"Then we have the drug flow that's coming north and the money that's going south and guns that are going south. And to cut jobs at a time like this is a recipe for disaster."

Related Stories:

• Mexico Plans Push Back to Tone of US Rhetoric: 'More Bridges, Fewer Walls'
• Trump: I Would Negotiate on Wall – Make It 2 Feet Shorter