Small Texas police department says influx of migrants 'overwhelming' officers

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Fox News gets exclusive ride along on southern border with Texas police

Fox News chief correspondent Jonathan Hunt speaks to officer Ismael Garza on the surge

A La Joya, Texas police sergeant told Fox News the migrant surge has become "overwhelming" for his officers.

"The change here for us happened in March. That’s when we noticed, and at the beginning, we were all shocked with finding a group of 20-30," Sgt. Garza told correspondent Jonathan Hunt. "We were like ‘oh wow.’ And then as the months went on, the numbers increased, and right now we see 20 and it's like, ‘Ok, no big deal.'"

"And now with this, I tell you, it’s overwhelming," Garza added.

Hunt reported to host Harris Faulkner the migrant surge is "overwhelming for everyone involved."

"I have to point out, the humanitarianism we see every day and every night being practiced by the police officers that are out here and, most of all, by border patrol agents," he said. "It is very much the best of America as those law enforcement agents from every branch of law enforcement try to deal with what is on this border a humanitarian as well as a national security crisis."

GOP DEMANDS BIDEN ADMINISTRATION ACT AFTER MAYORKAS CALLS BORDER CRISIS 'UNSUSTAINABLE'

Top Republicans last week called on the Biden administration to act on the crisis at the southern border after leaked audio emerged of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calling the situation there "unsustainable."

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"The other day I was in Mexico, and I said, if our border is our first line of defense, we're going to lose and this is unsustainable," Mayorkas said as he spoke to Border Patrol agents in Texas, audio of which was obtained by Fox News. "We can't continue like this, our people in the field cant continue and our system isn't built for it."

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Mayorkas told the agents that the current border situation "cannot continue." He said the federal government's system was not designed to handle such an influx of migrants as the U.S. has seen in recent months and he was "very well" aware that the sector recently came close to "breaking." 

The remarks came the same day as Mayorkas announced that there were more than 212,000 migrant encounters in July alone, a 13% increase over June and a massive increase over the 40,929 in July 2020.

While he gave a grim assessment of the border situation in a press conference, calling the situation "one of the toughest challenges we face," his remarks when he spoke to Border Patrol agents were more blunt. He also told them he was seeking 2,000 new agents in the 2023 budget.