LAGRANGE – When LaGrange County Sheriff Jeff Campos visited the Arizona-Mexico border last month it was a reality check.

Campos attended the Southwest Border Sheriff’s Fall Conference and took a ten hour inspection tour of the border.

He said the first reality check was that corruption is real.

"JUst months before we got down there the Border Patrol had to arrest one of their own. A Border Patrol agent was looking the other way as vehicles would come through. Now they have a system where there's not one agent at a port of entry stays in that one spot very long, and they can switch at any time. That way that doesn't happen again."

Campos said the other reality on the border is the Mexican Cartel.

"We went to a port of entry and just right on the other side of the wall there in Mexico, probably 50 feet, there is a house, and that is the cartel's house. While we were driving along we'd get out and observe the wall, and while we were standing there they had sentries. They drove by and they were taking pictures of us. I guess they were trying to intimidate us but we all waved back. I was surreal. You know, you hear about it, but to actually see them and know who they are..."

"The Border Patrol told us that house that they're living in right on the other side in Mexico, it was a one story building, and when we erected the 18 foot wall they put another story on so they could look over the top."

In the next part of our series, Sheriff Campos talks about the challenges faced in protecting the border.