Calling El Paso "ground zero" for the national debate on immigration, the nation's top border security official on Wednesday warned lawmakers of chaos, adding that as many as 1,000 migrants crossed into the region on Monday alone.

Kevin K. McAleenan, the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Protection, said the agency is stretched thin as the government moves personnel and resources to try to meet the rising flood of migrants, the majority of them asylum seekers from Central America.

He urged lawmakers to provide more resources to fix the country's broken immigration laws, which he said are enticing savvy smugglers to prey on vulnerable people, encouraging them to make the journey north.

Last month in Washington, McAleenan warned of a looming "breaking point" for the agency. On Wednesday, in a meeting with reporters in El Paso that was carried live on social media, the commissioner said that moment has come.

"That breaking point has arrived this week at our border," he said. "CBP is facing an unprecedented humanitarian and border security crisis all along our Southwest border, and nowhere has that crisis manifested more acutely than here in El Paso."

1 / 2This Tuesday, March 26, 2019, photo shows a border patrol checkpoint, north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, that U.S. immigration authorities have closed and have reassigned agents to repurpose inspection areas to handle an influx of Central Americans arriving at the Mexican border. (Cedar Attanasio / AP) 2 / 2The scene outside the Border Patrol station in El Paso, Texas, where U.S. officials say they are becoming overwhelmed in the face of a migration surge.(U.S Customs and Border Patrol / Handout)

Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, recently warned that the area may soon be receiving as many as 1,000 asylum seekers on a daily basis, about double the number of migrants pouring into shelters last Fall.

"As a result of this incompetence and lack of leadership, this administration has driven El Paso and our law enforcement to a 'breaking point,"' Escobar said. "We know that a border wall doesn't prevent asylum seekers. Furthermore, President Trump has failed to provide a long-term solution and instead gutted critical funds to address the root causes of Central American migration."

That number, McAleenan said, was reached Monday. An estimated 4,000 were detained borderwide on Monday alone, McAleenan said. That's the highest daily total in a decade. The majority crossed in the El Paso-Juarez region.

In February, more than 76,000 migrants were detained, the highest number in 12 years. That included more than 40,000 family members and more than 7,000 unaccompanied children.

If the pace continues, the numbers will near records set back in 2000 when upward of 1.6 million people were apprehended crossing the border, the majority of them single Mexican men who were promptly deported. And therein lies the challenge for CBP.

Today's massive migration is made up largely of Central American families, including many children, or unaccompanied children, all seeking asylum. They have a legal right to present themselves to U.S. authorities to be taken into custody so they can make their case for asylum before a U.S. immigration judge.

The families are typically released with ankle monitors to await court hearings in the nation's historically clogged immigration courts. The process can take months, or years.

"We need to be able to detain families for a short period of time -- four to eight weeks -- to go through an immigration court proceeding," McAleenan said. "If they don't have a valid claim they'll be repatriated. If they do, they'll be released with certainty they have asylum."

McAleenan insisted that the only solution to the crisis at the border lies with Congress.

"Legislative relief, changes in the law and closing the vulnerabilities in our legal framework is the only way this flow is going to be reduced and we're going to be able to restore integrity to our immigration system," he said.

The increasingly difficult situation is posing new challenges for agents who need to immediately take care of the migrants, McAleenan said.

He said some migrants arrive suffering from injuries or viruses, such as chickenpox or flu. Some have seizures. Some have lice.

McLeenan also warned that crowded detention centers could worsen the situation.

"We are doing everything we can to simply avoid a tragedy in a CBP facility," McAleenan said. "But with these numbers, with the types of illnesses we're seeing at the border, I fear that it's just a matter of time."

The challenge is so big in El Paso that McAleenan said CBP has begun to reassign agents from other ports to El Paso. Over the weekend, the Border Patrol temporarily shut down highway checkpoints in West Texas and New Mexico and reassigned agents to help alleviate overwhelmed agents dealing with the influx of migrant families and unaccompanied children.

"To process and ensure appropriate care for those in custody, resources, including personnel, have been diverted from other border security priorities," a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said in a statement.

The reassignment of more than 700 agents could have far reaching implications for border trade between Mexico and the U.S. as fewer agents are in place to inspect 18-wheelers full of cargo and other normal border traffic.

The effect will particularly be felt in Texas, the biggest trading partner with Mexico, and right before Easter Weekend, historically an economic boom for U.S. retailers along the border.

High-level Mexican officials met with Homeland Security Secretary Kiersten Nielsen on Tuesday in Miami to talk about the record number of apprehensions and how to better cooperate. On Wednesday, Nielsen traveled to Honduras to meet with Central American leaders to sign an agreement calling for increased cooperation between the U.S. and Central American nations to meet the challenge of human smuggling organizations.

Advocates for migrant groups have long said they view the situation along the border as a humanitarian crisis, but they push back on any notion that this is a national emergency. They remain skeptical about the timing.

With 2020 campaign in full swing, President Donald Trump has been trying to make the case for funding a border wall, a signature promise to his base. It remains unclear, however, how a wall will solve the current problem along the border: Border Patrol agents and advocates have pointed out that migrants who cross the Rio Grande are on U.S. soil, and thus eligible to claim asylum according to international law, even before they get to the stretches along the river that are lined with fencing.

"There is no need for a national emergency, no need for costly and ineffective walls, or programs that criminalize and dehumanize asylum seekers," said in a statement by Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights. "Instead, ours is a proud, resilient, inclusive community with strong values and care for our fellow human beings."

El Paso, among the hardest hit areas with the increasing number of family arrivals, is expecting the construction of a new facility to help provide shelter as immigrants arrive and are processed. The center, which is not expected to be opened for months, is part of a border security compromise between Democrats and Trump.

A group calling itself Action El Paso, a coalition of concerned businesses and community leaders, is asking CBP to consult with the community before construction begins.

"If a processing center is to open in our community, it must be well-equipped and prioritize the humanity of migrants, and that requires careful planning and time," stated, Jon Barela, chief executive officer of The Borderplex Alliance, a member of Action El Paso.