Rogue Border Patrol Agents

Obviously, everyone is concerned about President Donald Trump's promise to build something between the United States and Mexico. A wall. A fence. Whatever he is promising this week. Is it possible? Will it stop migrants? Will it stop drugs? Will it do more harm than good to US consumers and businesses? How much will a wall damage relations with our southern neighbors? Who will pay for the wall? Will the costs of the wall exceed any tangible benefit? How much damage will a wall do to the environment? How much damage will a wall do to animal populations?

But even if a wall is built, the US is still going to need people to patrol the wall. People can jump walls. They can go under walls. They can throw or shoot things over walls. And, for some reason, we cannot find enough qualified people to want to work for the Border Patrol. Instead, the administration is considering lowering the qualifications necessary to gain employment. Most people are probably in support of speeding up the process for some veterans and other potentially qualified applicants.

However, we've tried this before. It doesn't end well for anybody (See 2014's The Green Monster which works well for class). You probably need to hire more people to recruit and do background checks on applicants. You don't make the application process meaningless.

Given how few people have been coming across the border in recent years, and especially the last five months, it's not even clear that the US needs any more agents. Today's agents are capturing fewer people than they have historically. It's possible we have too many agents doing too little. But few people want to hear that.