(road noise)

- [Heather Sells] How bad has it been

at the border this year?

By the end of June in ElPaso, Border Patrol Agents

had apprehended a recordnumber of families.

Up by 1700% over 2018.

- This has been chaotic sincearound October in El Paso.

El Paso has never seenthis type of numbers

in the last decade.

- [Heather Sells] A steadystream of parents and children

arrived during our day with Border Patrol,

many close to tears as theysurrendered and told stories

of extreme violence,poverty and corruption.

- We don't know what else to do.

- [Heather Sells] Thissurge of desperate families

has transformed the workof Border Patrol Agents.

Their mission now is morehumanitarian than ever.

- We have been the primary caretakers;

diapers, making bottles,administering first aid.

- [Heather Sells] Duringour visit in June,

Border Patrol refused to showus or other media at the time,

the inside of its processing facilities.

But what we saw and heard made it clear.

The number of migrantsthey've been receiving

has simply overwhelmed agents.

- We do work a 10-hour day.

That's our normal shift.

But sometimes towardsthe end of your shift

you might encounter alarge group of 300 people,

and you're by yourself, soyou have to stay out there.

- [Heather Sells] At places like this,

where the wall endsbetween ports of entry,

buses have literallydropped off large groups

seeking asylum.

- Hundreds of peoplewill just be unloaded.

They will simply just walk across.

- [Heather Sells] Theproblem with such drop-offs,

says Border Patrol, is thatthey literally take agents

away from the border.

- There's normally twoagents along this stretch

of the border, but right now there's none.

They've both been divertedto care for the wave

that's coming over.

- We know that thesecartels are watching us.

We know that they're exploiting us.

It's a very coordinatedeffort that they use.

They'll send in a largegroup, knowing it's gonna take

a lot of our resources.

- [Heather Sells]Traffickers boldly encourage

those who want to sneakacross and not surrender,

to do so in broad daylight.

These four men took a chancein the middle of the afternoon.

Alert agents found out andspent anxious minutes watching

with a paramedic, as themen turned back to Mexico.

- If one of them would'vefell down off of that

18-foot fence, more thanlikely there would've been

broken ankles, broken bones,broken legs, skull fractures,

which we have seen.

- [Heather Sells] It's nosecret that nationwide,

Border Patrol is having a toughtime filling job vacancies.

For now the President's"Remain in Mexico" Policy

and new asylum rule is givingagents somewhat of a break.

But legal challenges couldreverse both these policies

and Mexican cartels, no doubt,

will find new ways tomove people and drugs.

- They don't come to theborder just on their own.

Everybody has to beprocessed by a smuggler.

You don't cross the riverwithout paying somebody.

- [Heather Sells] Thehigh business stakes,

combined with court obstacles,mean Border Patrol Agents

could likely end upright where they've been,

caught in the middle of ahuge wave of immigration;

a wave with no easy fixes.

Reporting in El Paso, Heather Sells, CBN.