Retired Arizona Border Patrol agent Chris Clem joined "FOX & Friends" Friday to react to Rep. Maxwell Frost comparing the border crisis to Ellis Island. Frost, D-Fla., told FOX Business' Hillary Vaughn that the United States can handle the flow of migrants at the border based on the number of immigrants that were processed in the early 1900s. 

MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS HIT DAILY RECORD AT SOUTHERN BORDER AS WASHINGTON STRUGGLES TO AGREE ON SOLUTIONS

CHRIS CLEM: That's just nonsense and classic virtue-signaling from politicians. Let's look at the history of Ellis Island. From the mid-1800s to 1900, over 60 years, 12 million people were processed. We are three-quarters of the way there in the last three years under this president. I mean, coming off the heels of an industrial revolution, the second industrial revolution, we needed people. These were family units. These are not what we're seeing today. And by the way, people that arrived at Ellis Island were stopped on the ship before they even got there to be in [medical] quarantine. So to compare that, it's just classic virtue-signaling from a lot of elected leaders. But one particular party has kind of gotten the the handle on that really well. 

The ongoing migrant crisis at the southern border is breaking new records, and multiple marks have been set since September, as the crisis deepens into its third year and Washington struggles to agree on solutions.

The latest record was smashed Tuesday with more than 12,000 migrant encounters at the southern border.

It marked the highest total for a single day ever recorded. More than 10,200 of those were Border Patrol encounters of illegal immigrants coming between ports of entry.

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.