It's the holy grail of President Trump's immigration policy.

“The United States will not be a migrant camp, and it will not be a refugee holding facility. It won't be.”

But at the border, there's a kind of chaos unfolding that a wall might not fix.

The Trump administration's hard-line stance on keeping migrants out is pushing asylum seekers to take remote and dangerous routes into the United States.

Here's how this is playing out.

The border stretches nearly 2,000 miles, and these are the official ports of entry.

More than 650 miles already have barriers installed.

Fences, barbed wire or vehicle barricades.

Over the years, that's pushed people to try riskier routes to get across.

And since 2014, more families have been arriving.

And many of them are seeking asylum, a human right protected by both U.S. and international law.

The Trump administration's hard-hitting crackdown includes a tactic called “metering.”

“Documents ready.”

Entering through an official border crossing is one way to request asylum.

But that's become more difficult under Trump.

The practice of metering allows border agents to limit the number of asylum seekers that are processed each day by delaying them from setting foot into the U.S.

We can see it in action here, at the Paso del Norte crossing in El Paso, Texas.

Officers are standing right at the border, trying to intercept people before they get to the border station.

This tactic is deliberate.

Once people reach U.S. soil, they have the right to claim asylum.

But if they never cross the border, they have to come back another day.

Metering is not new.

But the Trump administration has taken it to a new level.

“We're metering, which means that if we don't have the resources to let them in on a particular day, they're going to come back. So they're going to wait their turn.”

But as the government is limiting asylum seekers, they're still funneling people to these same ports of entry to seek asylum.

“Instead migrants seeking asylum will have to present themselves lawfully at a port of entry.”

This is creating bottlenecks.

Here, in Tijuana, is a vivid example of how metering plays out.

Thousands of migrants are stuck.

Human rights observers say that some are camping in squalid and dangerous conditions.

The situation is leading migrants to try riskier routes through desolate terrain, where they're at greater risk of dehydration and other illnesses.

They're showing up in places like Antelope Wells, N.M.

It's extremely remote and mountainous.

Antelope Wells is part of the El Paso border area, which has seen a dramatic increase in the number of families crossing far away from official border stations.

As you can see here, this increase happened right when the practice of metering expanded.

And many are crossing in groups of 100 or more, like this one that arrived in January.

But these remote outposts lack facilities, especially to deal with children.

7-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin and her father crossed here on Dec. 6, where they encountered Border Patrol.

They were brought to a nearby outpost, where Jakelin got sick.

It took an overnight journey with multiple stops, including a 94-mile bus ride and an air ambulance evacuation to get her to the children's hospital in El Paso.

Her condition worsened, and she later died.

12 days later, another father crossed the border in the El Paso area with his 8-year-old child.

Felipe Gomez Alonzo was in custody for six days.

He died from the flu on Christmas Eve.

Border Patrol officials say that they're not equipped to deal with all of this.

“Our infrastructure is incompatible with this reality. Our Border Patrol stations and ports of entry were built to handle mostly male, single adults in custody, not families or children.”

But the practice of metering is forcing people through more remote routes, in turn overtaxing these far-flung outposts and putting a strain on officers.

It's also leading to ever-more-dangerous consequences for migrants.