Of the 8,600 prisoners that Arizona’s Maricopa County turned over to federal authorities for deportation over the last 18 months, more than 3,000 quickly returned to jail on new criminal charges.

It is the kind of statistic that drives legendary Sheriff Joe Arpaio crazy.

“One guy came back 20 times, 16 times,” he told LifeZette. “So why is it that we turn these people over and they keep coming back to the same jails with other crimes? That’s my big question, and I can’t get an answer from Homeland Security or ICE. And I think that’s very informative, where I have the proof … My gut feeling is they’re letting them out on the streets.”

Arpaio said it is one of the main reasons that Donald Trump is resonating in Arizona, where voters are casting primary ballots Tuesday. Trump has the support of Arpaio and the state’s former governor, Jan Brewer, who led a state effort to crack down on illegal immigration.

Others lack Arpaio’s fame. But sheriffs all along the Mexican-U.S. line express frustration over what they regard as the federal government’s failure to control the border.

“I don’t think a day goes by that we don’t deal with the nexis of immigration,” said Mark Dannels, the sheriff of Cochise County in Arizona. “It takes a toll on the workforce, on your resources, on your budget.”

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Dannels said rural counties like his saw an influx of crime when U.S. enforcement efforts in the 1990s focused on heavily populated cities. The cartels moved and now “have title” to those rural regions, he said.

“Border security in current times is (treated like) a discretionary program on the part of our government and leaders, and I’m talking about Washington, D.C.,” he said.

Donald Reay, executive director of the Southwest Border Sheriff’s Coalition, said smugglers have become more violent. He said ranchers who years ago used to give food and water to migrants now keep their distance. They often do not let their wives leave the house alone and do not venture out themselves unless they are armed.

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“They (the sheriffs) have been able to keep crime in check, but they’re never satisfied with it,” he said. “It’s like putting your finger in a dyke.”

Beyond the crime impact, border sheriffs said they are struggling under a financial burden. Under the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, the federal government reimburses sheriffs at a rate of just 4.8 cents on the dollar for the cost of housing criminal illegal immigrants and are removing fewer from local custody.

Dannels said that does not include the extra burden of positioning deputies near the border and buying equipment like a helicopter, infrared glasses and off-road vehicles.

“Everything we do, that takes away from what we normally do,” he said.

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Yuma County (Arizona) Sheriff Leon Wilmot said his county suffered some of the worst immigration-related crime in the country a decade ago. He said officials had good success with Operation Streamline, a federal initiative begun in 2005 that took a a zero-tolerance approach to illegal border crossings. But the Obama administration replaced it in 2014 with the Priority Enforcement Program, which authorizes deportation only in the most serious criminal cases.

Wilmot said his department since October has arrested 180 “backpackers,” illegal immigrants carrying marijuana and, in some cases, cocaine and methamphetamine. The incarceration costs have exceeded $1.3 million, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office will not prosecute them, he said.

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“That had a pretty significant impact in Yuma County on my budget,” he said. “The PEP program, as far as the sheriffs are concerned, is pretty much a failure.”

Concerns over lax border enforcement run beyond crime. It also contributes to, of all things, livestock deaths.

Gary Thrasher, a Hereford, Arizona, veterinarian said he has opened up a number of dead cattle and determined the cause of death was consumption of non-food items left behind by migrants. This includes items of clothing, tennis shoes, plastic bags — even backpacks. He has coined the term “Oxxo disease,” after plastic bags from the popular Mexican convenience store of the same name.

“We find it all the time,” he said. “The closer to the border, the more we find it.”

A porous border means not only humans but animals wandering back and forth, Thrasher said. There is a “very real risk” of an outbreak of diseases like bovine tuberculosis and other afflictions that can sicken both animals and humans.

“Our biggest fear with any of these diseases that are communicable is how it would affect our food exports,” he said. “The USDA doesn’t say if it will happen. They say when.”