Throwing People at the Problem

Here's a message for all those members of Congress who grandstand year after year about increasing the size of the Border Patrol to stem the tide of illegal immigration on the country's southern border: It's not just about adding more bodies. As AP reports, bringing on 2,000 more agents next year would max out the agency's ability to train the new hires. It's easy to drop language into legislation mandating certain hiring levels. It's much harder to make the sustained commitment to training, development and deployment of technology that is required to have a real impact on the border situation.