The crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border has exploded.

Border agents apprehended 144,278 migrants in May, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Chief (CBP) Operating Officer John P. Sanders told reporters Wednesday. That’s a 32% increase over April, he said.

“We are in a full-blown emergency, and I cannot say this stronger: the system is broken,” Sanders said. The chief said that nearly 700,000 foreigners have been apprehended in the past eight months, which he noted is “more than the population of Miami.”

CBP continues to face a worsening crisis at the Southwest border. In May, CBP apprehended or deemed inadmissible 144,278 individuals along the SWB—a 32% increase over the previous month. Details here: https://t.co/ru9AsalgPb pic.twitter.com/p8kcr5lZ7Y — CBP (@CBP) June 5, 2019

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The May total was the highest in 13 years, border officials said, and included 11,391 “inadmissibles.” Last month’s total was also a 182% over May 2018.

Brian Hastings, Border Patrol Chief of Law Enforcement Operations, said of the number apprehended, more than 84,000 were “family” units, more than 11,000 were unaccompanied minors and some 36,000 were single adults, both male and female. The daily average of apprehensions was 4,286 per day in May.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in the 24 years I’ve been doing this job,” Hastings said.

May was the third month in a row that apprehensions of foreigners illegally entering America surpassed 100,000, with many coming from Guatemalan and Honduran through Mexico.

The flow of illegals into the U.S. has risen each month in 2019. Just last week, more than 1,0oo crossed through the Rio Grande near El Paso and surrendered to border agent — the largest single group of illegals has ever had to process.

“Border Patrol agents have encountered over 180 large groups (100+ individuals) along the Southwest border so far in Fiscal Year 2019, compared to 13 in FY18 and only 2 in FY17. During May alone, USBP apprehended 49 large groups, including a group of 1,045 last week in El Paso,” the CBP wrote on Twitter.

Border Patrol agents have encountered over 180 large groups (100+ individuals) along the Southwest border so far in Fiscal Year 2019, compared to 13 in FY18 and only 2 in FY17. During May alone, USBP apprehended 49 large groups, including a group of 1,045 last week in El Paso: pic.twitter.com/MTsuDim54f — CBP (@CBP) June 5, 2019

There were 109,144 foreigners caught crossing the southern border in April. For comparison, there were 103,719 apprehensions in March and 76,534 in February. There were more than 60,000 arrests each of the three months prior to that, and the numbers before September 2018 all ranged from 30,000 to 50,000.

The 109,144 was a new record. Of those, 58,474 were recorded as members of family units, another all-time high, according to data released last month.

Border Patrol agents have been overwhelmed for months, and during a congressional hearing last month, Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost said she has been forced to reassign hundreds of agents to handle the influx.

“We cannot address this crisis by simply shifting more resources or building more facilities,” she said. “It’s like holding a bucket under a faucet: it doesn’t matter how many buckets you give me if we can’t turn off the flow.”