Those of us who live here in Cochise County wish that it would work that way. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Our sheriff has only 75 deputies to handle a county the size of the state of Connecticutt. The few hundred Border Patrol agents are trying to control very rough country 24 hours a day. The terrain is against them -- lots of man-high scrub and a maze of dry washes that makes their job similar to trench warfare.
They managed to catch about 180,000 here last year, but they privately estimate that 500,000 to 700,000 got past them. That's just for 80 miles of border.
The Border Patrol will not see any reinforcements in manpower or equipment. Dubya's FY 2005 budget proposal cuts their funding by $130 million.
As far as Jack Foote getting arrested -- he would be only one of several hundred suspects and the authorities know it.
Are you sure about this? I don't know about the Border Patrol specifically, but the Customs and Border Protection bureau of which they are a part had a budget increase of $223 million requested for FY 05. I take that figure from Department of Homeland Security budget in brief (on page 67 of the PDF file). Could the Border Patrol cut be rearranging things on paper as part of the new organization in the Homeland Security department?