There has been a surge in assaults on U.S. Border Patrol agents charged with capturing illegals trying to cross into the United States, according the agency's chief.

Border Patrol Chief Mark A. Morgan told a Senate committee Wednesday that two agents have been killed in the last four months alone.

"The men and women of the Border Patrol have one of the toughest jobs in federal law enforcement," said Morgan, adding, "They are the most assaulted federal law enforcement in the us, more than 7,400 border patrol agents have been assaulted since 2006."

Without detailing the extent of the assaults, he said the numbers have jumped. "That rose in FY16 by 20 percent and year to date were seeing an increase in assaults by 200 percent over previous year to date. It's a dangerous job."

He said that the agents have a "can do attitude."

His testimony noted that there has been a new surge of illegals, especially younger illegals.

In joint testimony provided to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the agency's top two officials said that 408,870 illegal crossers were caught in the last fiscal year, which ended in September. That was higher than in fiscal 2015.

Morgan and Deputy Chief Carla Provost revealed that apprehensions of younger, "unaccompanied alien children," has surged since October 1. By November 16, some 10,549 have been caught, a 38 percent one year surge.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com