Illegal Aliens: Flathead Sheriff and Kalispell Mayor Weigh In

We got a surprise phone call early Wednesday from the Flathead County Sheriff and the Mayor of Kalispell. They had just wrapped up a big meeting discussing the illegal aliens that were dumped in Kalispell last week, and what to do about the ongoing crisis.

ICYMI: Last week, we told you how illegal aliens reportedly travelled across our southern border and then got flown from New York City to Kalispell, Montana. Since there was nowhere for them to stay once they reached Kalispell, they landed on the sheriff's doorstep.

Regardless of the immigration debate, Sheriff Brian Heino says Flathead County simply doesn't have the resources to handle an influx of homeless people, legal or illegal.

Sheriff Heino: "When they're coming from other larger metropolitan areas and they're brought into these smaller jurisdictions, and then all of a sudden it's dropped into a community without really a support structure to handle that."

He also cited the language barriers that come with illegal aliens entering the US from so many different countries.

Sheriff Heino: "When you bring in individuals that have different varying levels of documentation- you have medical, you have education, you have all these different things that are essentially added to it. You look at my agency- how do you train 60 people on languages that are going to vary across- we've got everything from Spanish to Russians to everything else. I can't teach all my guys those things."

The sheriff added that new statutes are needed at the state level to push back against the influx of illegal aliens, and the lack of law and order being upheld by the federal government.

Kalispell Mayor Mark Johnson: "The biggest question that we face is that we look at a federal government that's failing to do its job at this point in time....the frustrating part is we at the local level are forced to respond to the lack of leadership and the failure of leadership at the top levels in this country to enforce laws that we have in black and white."