Mexican bus service now a political issue

Valarie Honeycutt Spears And Steve Lannen

Buses that daily bring Latinos from the Mexican border to Lexington, KY are becoming a political issue, with allegations flying that they also bring in drugs and illegal immigrants.

Recently, the accusations have entered into a mayor’s immigration task force public forum in Lexington, a televised state attorney general’s race debate and on Thursday, a radio talk show featuring Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

Advocates and police say there is no hard evidence that the buses have led to an increase in drug trafficking, but Stan Lee, the Republican candidate for attorney general and a state representative from Lexington, said in a KET debate last week: “There are buses that come directly from Mexico into Lexington, Kentucky. They bring not only a lot of illegal aliens, they bring in a lot of drugs.â€