Photographer Captures Birds-Eye View of Border Crisis

Flying above the southern tip of Texas in a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol chopper, photographer John Moore has witnessed the humanitarian crisis firsthand.

Since October, over 57,000 children have crossed America’s southern border illegally. Arrests have more than doubled in the Rio Grande Valley since 2011, according to a University of Texas at El Paso report published in March. Children 12 years of age and under are the fastest growing group of unaccompanied minors, according to Pew. And while the numbers have slowed recently—the White House said Monday that 150 children were apprehended per day in the first two weeks of July, compared to 355 per day in June—immigrants are streaming over in numbers that are rocking the Obama Administration and straining its resources.

Two departments in charge of arresting and removing immigrants who are in the country illegally—Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection—will go broke by mid-September, according to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, and the Department of Health and Human Services, which temporarily houses such children, doesn’t have enough beds. A few weeks ago, Obama asked Congress for $3.7 billion to address the crisis; the Democratic-controlled Senate offered only $2.7 billion Wednesday and the House around $1.5 billion. But money isn’t the only problem. How to screen and process the children remains a major sticking point, and it’s looking like Congress will not pass a bill before members leave for the August recess.

Moore’s photographs—the shadows cast by the tall, rusty border fence; agents on the chase; one blue jean-clad immigrant handcuffed in a field of shrubs and sand; a gaggle of children walking before taken into custody; a patrol boat—focus on Ground Zero of the tragedy. They were taken on July 21 and 22 in McAllen and near a processing center in Falfurrias, Texas.