(CNSNews.com) - El Paso County's top elected leader told Congress on Wednesday that undocumented migrants crossing into the United States, hundreds of thousands every month, will remember how they were treated when they become U.S. citizens.

Judge Ricardo Samaniego, a Democrat and a staunch advocate for asylum seekers, said El Paso County needs more funding, to be able to shelter and feed the unprecedented influx of foreigners while they await transportation to other parts of the United States:

"And I can tell you that most of them are going to be U.S. citizens. And if you treat them wrongly, they'll remember that," Samaniego said.

Here is the judge's response to Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who asked Samaniego what more Congress can do to help him process migrants arriving in El Paso.

"Like I said, we are not funded properly. We cannot process properly, and that is when you have people and buses going into communities that are not ready for them.

"Obviously, we need shelter. Most of the migrants will move out within 72 hours. And I can tell you that not even 1 percent of the migrants ever stay in our community. They're moving to other directions. They have sponsorships. We really need that support to have shelter for them, so that we can accommodate them.

"Like, 40 percent already have sponsors and they can move quickly. But the others, it takes us a day, maybe 72 hours to be able to process them or to redirect them.

"And I can tell you that most of them are going to be U.S. citizens. And if you treat them wrongly, they'll remember that. If you treat them properly and you treat them with respect and humanity, and humanitarianism, these are going to be part of our residents, part of our citizens. And this is the first face they have with our country.

"And I want to be able for them to keep that excitement, have that respect for America, and you do that by treating them properly. So we need shelter we need food...and we need to be able to use our strategy. Our strategy works."

The strategy, as described by Samaniego, is "very compassionate" and does not involve law enforcement. It involves "making sure that we get individuals to the right place at the right time," he said.

Samaniego also emphasized the importance of "getting communities to send buses to us" so that migrants can be moved on to their sponsors -- friends and family already in this country.

"So our strategy works," Samaniego said. "It only doesn't work when we are not funded properly."

Asked why migrants are coming to the United States, the judge said "they're extremely passionate."

"I wish most of our citizens had the passion and the desire to be in our country like they do. I've heard a lot of different stories. One of them is the fact that they stand up for their rights in their country, and then they're persecuted because of that."

The judge said the migrants are "extremely passionate about working. They all say the same thing, that they're very willing and able to work."