Today, the CBP reported they’ve reached the limit of what they can do at the border. As illegal immigrants flood the zone between ports of entry, they simply do not have the resources to continue enforcing our immigration laws, to ensure the safety of those who cross, nor to house them once detained. Without further barriers, they are unable to pool current resources and use them to their maximum effectiveness (such as the videos of a few agents able to hold back hundreds because San Diego has a wall).

This is a full blown emergency and it’s not  just President Trump saying this. This is not political anymore. It’s reality and law enforcement officials are now desperately begging for someone to take this seriously.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan said the border has hit it’s “breaking point” during a visit to El Paso.

A huge influx of Central American migrants has made the El Paso Sector the second-busiest location on the U.S.-Mexico border.

He continued by laying out some stunning numbers.

In the past two mornings, border officers took more than 12,000 migrants into custody along the border, McAleenan said.

“A high number is 4,000 — 6,000 is crisis level,” McAleenan said. “Twelve thousand is unprecedented. On Monday, we saw the highest total of apprehensions and encounters in years, with over 4,000 in a single day.”

He continued, “We are now on pace for over 100,000 apprehensions and encounters with migrants, with 90 percent — 90,000 — crossing the border illegally between ports of entry. March will be the highest month in over a decade.”

This is untenable. As McAleenan says, things are already breaking down. Over 100,000 apprehensions in a month is an incredible number, especially given that Democrats are holding the CBP hostage by refusing to give them more beds for housing. Even if we can safely apprehend them, we have nowhere to put them.

Who are most of these people? Economic migrants making fake asylum claims and abusing the system.

He said that 10 to 15 percent of migrants have legitimate asylum claims, but it will take years for those claims to be heard in court.

“Economic migration” from impoverished Central American nations is overwhelming the legitimate asylum system, McAleenan said.

While 65 percent of border crossings are families and children surrendering to agents, the rest are adults trying to evade capture, including some with criminal backgrounds, McAleenan said.

Family units are at an all time high because word has made it’s way into Central America that children get you a free pass into the country. Because of the ridiculous Flores settlement, which requires the separation of children from parents in custody after 20 days, the CBP are forced to go back to simply releasing people into the interior. We often don’t know who these people are, their backgrounds, or whether they will ever show back up for an asylum hearing.

Due to the system being so overwhelmed, legitimate asylum cases can not be heard in a timely manner. This is hurting people actually in need.

Of course activist groups offer no real solutions, only bloviating that asylum seekers are not criminals.

“Asylum seekers are not criminals,” the group stated. “Asylum is a lawful process and migrants need to have an ability to claim asylum. Denying migrants the ability to claim asylum at ports, as our laws are designed to work, may force them to cross without authorization but does not make them criminals or undermine their asylum claims in any way.”

The group added that they “invite Commissioner McAleenan to tell the Irish of the 1840s or the Italians of the 1890s that poverty and starvation are not reasons to come to seek the opportunity, welcome, and grace of these United States.”

America has finite resources. We simply can not import every poor person in the world at the snap of a finger. The vast majority of those that came in the 1840s and 1890s did so legally through ports of entry and the country did not have an already unsustainable welfare system at the time. What’s happening now is that tens of thousands of illegal immigrants are crossing a month, putting themselves and border agents in danger. This is not claiming asylum, it’s anarchy and it can not continue. If we start accepting more fake asylum claims, we will only enlarge the crisis as it incentivizes even more migrants to make the journey. That’s no compassionate, that’s dangerous and irresponsible.

We are already hearing horror stories of dehydrated children and old men with organ failure. No doubt, many more have died that we aren’t even aware of. The Border Patrol doesn’t have the facilities to care for all these people. Disgustingly, some politicians and media figures are using these tragic cases as bludgeons, accusing the CBP and ICE of humanitarian crimes. This is nonsense. They are doing everything they can.

When Beto O’Rourke went to El Paso and proclaimed there as no issue, he was lying. When CNN’s Jim Acosta smugly when to Texas to stupidly point at the border wall and snark there is no emergency, he was lying. Enough is enough.

It’s time to take this problem seriously. Democrats need to put politics aside and forget about Donald Trump for once. The humanitarian crisis is real. The emergency at the border is real. It’s time to fund more agents, more beds, more facilities, and yes, more barriers. Enough of the dangerous game of chicken being played. It’s also time for some on the right who originally opposed these measures to realize the situation has changed. A year ago, they may have had a case to say there was no emergency. Today, that case no longer exists. Time to face reality and act.