LAGRANGE – When LaGrange County Sheriff Jeff Campos visited the Arizona-Mexico border last month he brought back training he could use within his department in dealing with illegal immigration.

"They pretty much told us what to look for, and questions to ask if you come across a possible illegal. Most of these people are lied to by the Cartel. They make them scared to be honest. If you don't have the $6,000 for the Cartel, then you work it off, plus interest, and that never goes away. So they always have a finger on you. The Cartel victimizes kids, women, everybody. It's an ongoing thing."

The sheriff says – like drugs – the immigration problem has no real end...and will continue to be an issue in local communities here in Michiana.

"There are some here. Most of them are law-abiding. As a sheriff's office, [illegal entry] is a federal offense. The best we can do is call Immigration. If I hold one I can only hold them 72 hours then I have to let them go. If I have a criminal charge, that's different. We're going to look for a criminal offense."

"I'm proud to say there's a jail officer who works here that is a U-S citizen now, but when his parents brought him over he was illegal. We he was older he got a visa, got a resident card, and now he's a U-S citizen. Otherwise I couldn't hire him. So it's real here too."

The border sheriffs Campos met and trained with said there is a need for more federal judges to hold immigration hearings so that border crossers aren’t released after 72 hours with only a summons to return to court.