Sheriff Morse vists Mexico border with lawmaker contingent

Jackson County Sheriff Tim Morse has visited the southern border in Texas several times, but his recent trip with U.S. Senator Dr. Ron Marshall and four other Kansas sheriffs shed new light on the growing immigration crisis.

“It was very eye-opening. Things have gotten from bad to worse,” Sheriff Morse said. “When you tell the rest of the world that the gates are open, people are going to come, and we’re not going to be able to handle that. Eventually it’s going to be such a toll on our country it’s going to affect everyone in some capacity.”

Sheriff Morse, who has served on the Immigration and Border Security Committee for the National Sheriffs’ Association, was invited on the two-night trip to the border by Sen. Marshall. 

Other sheriffs who attended included Shawnee County Sheriff Brian Hill, Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan, Franklin County Sheriff Jeff Richards and Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden.

The men visited the border near McAllen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley for briefings, tours and meetings with border patrol officials.

Sheriff Morse said the group went on operations with the Texas Department of Public Safety and toured entry checkpoint areas and holding facilitates. 

“Gov. Abbott has done a lot with border security and used about every state resource that he has down there, including the game wardens,” Morse said. “What I was so impressed with were the border patrol agents and officers, the Texas Department of Public Safety and also the sheriffs down there. They were all high quality law enforcement personnel. We should all be grateful that we have such good people down there. They are all working together – state, federal and local. That was the most impressive thing. There wasn’t like this territorial thing between agencies. They have limitations, but they really did a wonderful job working seamlessly together.”

Morse said that 80 percent of the law enforcement agents are all Hispanic.

“They were super to these people. They might chase them down and catch them, but they treated them great and with respect and dignity,” Morse said. 

Sheriff Morse said that, based upon what he saw during his visit and talking with officials, the agencies are “fully capable of securing that border.”

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