By COLLEEN LONG and CEDAR ATTANASIO
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - A top U.S. Border Patrol official has a warning: The crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border is not over.

Even though crossings have been down over the past few months and news of custody deaths and teeming facilities full of children and families has faded from front pages, the number of migrants crossing is still high. And resources are stretched.

Border Patrol's Brian Hastings says higher numbers are the new norm. He says if recent deterrent efforts are blocked by courts, like a policy forcing asylum seekers to wait out their claims in Mexico , the numbers will rise again.

Over the budget year that ended Sept. 30, there were 859,510 apprehensions by Border Patrol, plus over 110,000 more encounters of people who tried to enter legally but were deemed inadmissible.

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