Twenty minutes.

In 20 minutes, I watched 19 people walk in-between ports of entry from Mexico into the United States without incident and willingly turn themselves over to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officials, knowing that our laws prevent them from being sent home. These same laws require them to be released into our country within a few days. In just 20 minutes, I watched 19 people successfully and illegally migrate into the United States.

This happened earlier this month on a trip to McAllen, Texas. I had the opportunity to lead a bipartisan group of Congressional members on the trip so that we could learn more about the situation at the southern border with our own eyes. While I hoped that those 20 minutes were an anomaly, we learned that the same high-volume illegal crossings are happening every day and have a daily national impact on our country that extends far beyond the border.

In fact, when we went to the McAllen airport at the end of the trip, I noticed more than 50 people boarding flights to various cities around the country, holding packets that said, “I do not speak English. Please help me get to the correct gate. Thank you!”

I later learned that these were people who had come to the U.S. illegally, but had to be released into the country on taxpayer-funded flights because of loopholes within the law and a lack of resources. They are expected to return for their appointments with an immigration judge in four to five years. One step across our border yields safe passage, a flight to an American city, and years of time in our country not as American citizens.

The situation on our southern border is as the president has described it: a national crisis -- a legal, financial, humanitarian and unsustainable crisis that impacts lives far beyond our geographic borders. It is being compounded by priorities and decisions being made in Washington. We witnessed the results of the significant loopholes in current immigration law and consequences of an alarming lack of resources.

In May, CBP agents apprehended more than 144,000 migrants crossing the border into the U.S. -- that is more than 4,600 people who were caught daily entering our country illegally. This is the highest number in 13 years. In part, this is due to counterproductive U.S. laws that incentivize illegal immigration or create a system of loopholes to circumvent the intent of the law.

 For example, as a result of the 1997 Flores court decision, unaccompanied minors crossing the border cannot be detained for more than 20 days before they and their families are released into the United States. Per the decision, children cannot be separated from those they claim as their parents.

This decision, while well-intentioned, has created a black market in Mexico where parents “rent” their children to groups who help people cross the border illegally. CBP officials see many of the same children on a regular basis, but lack the authority to challenge, or verify, the “parents’” claims that the children are in fact their children.

Additionally, international law requires that individuals fleeing their home country request asylum in the first country in which they set foot. Yet, according to the Washington Office on Latin America, thousands of migrants from Central and South American countries travel through Mexico’s southern border without requesting asylum on their way to the United States.

In an effort to combat this, the Trump administration correctly addressed this issue with Mexico to ensure that this law is enforced so that asylum-seekers entering Mexico first apply for asylum in Mexico rather than waiting until they reach the United States.

Beyond the loopholes in the law that are working against our border security, we also have seen how a grave lack of resources is exacerbating the humanitarian crisis on the border. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) currently has 40,500 beds available at the border on a daily basis. The Trump administration is requesting 52,000 beds to meet the current demand.

Our delegation visited one detention center that was intended to house 500 people, but there were 1,500 immigrants there awaiting processing. The lack of resources creates inhumane conditions that make this crisis an emergency. With the influx of migrants, our agents need the appropriate resources to safely and humanely detain and legally process those who are attempting to enter our country.

There are also insufficient numbers of ICE judges and attorneys to properly adjudicate the illegal immigrants as the law requires. ICE agents say that the adjudication process takes nearly five years when it was designed to take a few months. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, during this time period, more than 40% of the illegal immigrants are released into the U.S. until their court dates.

Like many of our country’s most pressing issues, our border crisis has reached critical mass because good policy has become the victim of partisan politics. Congressional Democrats consistently refuse to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), CBP, and ICE at appropriate levels; refuse to meet with the secretary of DHS to discuss these immigration and funding issues; and resist any fixes to our current system that is riddled with loopholes that too often work against securing the border.

No matter your politics, the loopholes and lack of resources have created a crisis at our border that demands immediate action from Congress. It should not -- and must not -- be about making a political point against our president.

According to the Pew Research Center, the U.S. welcomed more than 1 million legal immigrants into the country in 2018. These numbers are not decreasing. While it is easy to reduce this policy issue to political talking points about a wall or a refusal to welcome immigrants, it is about something that speaks to the foundation of our system of government.

As John Adams wisely said, “(We) are a government of laws, and not of men” -- and a little time in McAllen should remind us all of how bad it can get when the politics of men come before our government of laws.