Border crisis: I'm a Texas sheriff with 4 deputies patrolling 110 miles. We need help.

I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry when I hear Washington politicians arguing whether or not the number of migrants crossing our southern border has reached the point of “crisis.”

I know there’s a crisis. We are living it, every single day.

By way of introduction, I have served as the elected sheriff of Val Verde County, Texas, for the past 12 years. Before that, I served in local law enforcement for 30 years, mostly in Val Verde County.

For the record — not that it matters — I am a proud Democrat.

Val Verde County is massive: 3,200 square miles located just east of the Big Bend and roughly 150 miles west of San Antonio. We share 110 miles of border with the Mexican state of Coahuila.

In all my 42 years here, I have never seen so many migrants risking their lives to cross the Rio Grande as in the past couple of months.