- [Chuck] In 2017 alone,

more than 330,000 migrantsmade asylum claims

and less than 40% of thosewere found to have merit.

The current system has been unable

to keep up with theflood of asylum seekers,

which has led to a back log

of more than 800,000 casesaccording to the DHS.

Now, with several large caravans making

their way north to the U.S. border,

the Trump Administration is deploying

more than 7,000 troops to help.

Their commander, NORTHCOMGeneral Terrence O'Shaughnessy,

recently toured the South Texas border

to see the need first hand.

- We've been a very important task

to help harden the ports of entry

and try to make sure that our customs

and border personnel canhandle the vast numbers

that we're expecting tosee in this migration.

- Okay, so this is downtown El Paso,

we're right on the border fence here,

that's Juarez, Mexico acrossthe Rio Grande, there.

You can see the river isvery shallow right now,

you can walk right across it very easily,

and many people do.

They do that in this area a lot

because this fence is what they call,

"The Old Tortilla Curtain,"it's so easy to breach

in today's environment thatit needs to be replaced

and that's actuallyexactly what they're doing.

If you look over here to my right,

you can see some construction going on.

That's them in theprocess of installing new

and much more substantial fence,

but that's not part ofTrump's border wall.

The reason that they'reputting this in now is

because this area hasbecome really, really busy

with migrants crossingillegally and when they do that,

it's extremely expensivefor the American taxpayer.

- 'Cause I mean, we'restarting to see diseases

that we haven't seen in decades here.

Smallpox, chicken pox, all of that,

you add that to the costof removal proceedings,

you add that to the dangersthat we as a community face,

the people don't realize that.

- [Chuck] The TrumpAdministration recently announced

a new measure to discourageillegal border crossers.

Anyone caught entering thecountry illegally will not

be eligible for asylum.

It's a controversial move,

but it doesn't mean themigrants will be turned away.

The military on the borderis working long hours

to help the border patrolprepare to handle thousands

of legal asylum seekers.

- Specifically, they'reinitially looking for

that engineeringcapability that'll allow us

to harden the points of entry

and make sure that we areable to provide barricades,

provide an ability for them to be able

to process large numbers ofmigrants that will come in.

- [Chuck] The men and womenof the border patrol are

very glad for the help,

but they say in the long run,

what they really need is a wall.

- If you just look, I mean,

to cut through this isgonna take a lot more

than it is to cut through,

I mean, I can use my Leatherman,

I can take it out andI can cut through that.

This, it's been repairedall the way through,

it's just section after section like this,

where it's been cut.

- By entering the United Statesat a place not designated

as a point of entry, youare committing a crime.

And we need to make sure thatin the metropolitan areas

we have the best barrier we can have

to give us the right amount oftime so that we can prevent,

persuade people not to come across

and if not, then we canmake a safe apprehension.

It buys us time.

- [Chuck] In the meantime,with more than 1,000 migrants

a day attempting to cross the Rio Grande,

the border patrol will takeall the help they can get

and the U.S. Militaryis answering the call.

From El Paso, Texas, I'mChuck Holton for CBN News.