LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- From families risking their lives to cross the border, to dangerous Mexican drug cartels.
A local sheriff witnessed the heartbreaking and disturbing scenes firsthand. This week, sheriffs from across Indiana took a trip to the border in Texas.
Floyd County Sheriff Steve Bush said what they saw was heartbreaking, unbelievable and frustrating.
"And so it's just ... it's just unfathomable to think that, you know, what families are going through to come into the United States," Bush said.
Despite a 30-year career in law enforcement, Bush said he got quite the wake-up call.
"I'm still in shock by what I saw," he said. "Monday morning, there were three babies that drowned. They jumped in and one of the agents jumped in and saved one and one drowned. Two days before that six people drowned."
Bush was on a trip to Eagle Pass, Texas, with the Indiana Sheriff's Association.
"We wanted to go down and see what was going on on the border firsthand for the sheriffs here in Indiana, even though Indiana is not a border state," he said. "It's very important. This issue is very important to us and to everybody around the country."
Bush said the surge of migrants illegally crossing the border was almost unbelievable.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign a bill that would allow police to arrest migrants who enter the country illegally.
It cleared the Texas Senate last week, but it's unclear when Abbott would sign the bill. He said Wednesday that he would return to the border with former President Donald Trump.
"When we were down there at the border, we talked with the agents down there," Bush said. "They explained to us about 200,000 a month come through the border."
Floyd County Sheriff Steve Bush visited the Mexican border in Texas with the Indiana Sheriff's Assocation.
Bush said there is also a deadly criminal element.
"We have drugs coming in, the influx of fentanyl," he said. "We have the cartel. We were told the cartels are making $26,000 a day smuggling people in."
Lillian Rose is the CEO of the Hispanic Connection of Southern Indiana. She said despite being hundreds of miles away, many of the people crossing the border will end up in Kentuckiana.
"Because many of them, I would say probably 90%, have relatives in the U.S. and that's what they do, they go to their relatives’ homes," Rose said.
Texas Republicans also are on track to approve $1.5 billion to continue building more border wall. But the number of illegal crossings in October was lower.
Copyright 2023 WDRB Media. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All Rights Reserved.
