WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chairman, appeared on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ Sunday following a recent trip to McAllen and Laredo, Texas to discuss the resources and authorities needed to deal with the crisis on the southwest border.

Excerpts from the senator’s interview are below, and video can be found here: part 1 / part 2.

“Let me say that the men and women from our border patrol, and other volunteers from the federal government, are doing a heroic effort to try and deal with this humanitarian crisis. … We’re all concerned.”

“The processing centers are back open, but they are grossly overcrowded because of the unbelievable situation on the border, the out-of-control nature of it. Just the last three weeks on average about 23,000 women, children, and men are coming over across the border illegally as family units or as unaccompanied children. … We’re almost 8 months into this fiscal year and we're up to about 400,000 in total.”

“This is overwhelming our system, and we have to stop it. We have to change our laws to stop rewarding and incentivizing people to cross our border illegally.”

In the first seven months of the fiscal year, apprehensions of unaccompanied minors and individuals in family units at the southwest border or claiming asylum at ports of entry have exploded. The significant increase of those cases can be seen in the graph below.