The border crisis in the Rio Grande Valley is shedding light on a perpetual predicament that has long bedeviled the Border Patrol, reports the Associated Press: Many agents wind up stationed in places where crossing activity is slowest because the Border Patrol struggles to keep up with constantly shifting migration patterns. One example of the staffing mismatch: the roughly 2,500 agents in the San Diego sector arrested 97 immigrants illegally crossing the border on June 14. On the same day, the 3,200 agents in the Rio Grande Valley made 1,422 arrests.
President Barack Obama will ask Congress for more than $2 billion to respond to the flood of immigrants illegally entering the U.S. through the Rio Grande Valley and for new powers to deal with returning unaccompanied children. A letter will be sent to Congress on Monday. The exact amount and how it will be spent will come after Congress returns from recess on July 7. Whether any funds will go toward border staffing is unknown.