What I find kinda funny...is that the Tucson and Phoenix police departments...have programs where local citizens ride with the cops. It helps out when you have one cop assigned to a car, and sometimes the judgement of two on the scene can make a difference. From all of the programs in the US where private citizens ride with the police...I've never heard a negative word.
Which brings me to the border patrol. They too could use the help of private citizens. And what we see...is a private empire. They want absolute control over the situation. The government needs to take one of two actions. Either they beef up the border patrol...triple the number of officers out there....or they fire them all and go for a military-run operation. I don't see a problem with each state being given $100 million and using its national guard force for guard and patrol. They'd have air assets, recon, and the technology to take on trespassing.
Horses, dogs, civilians at the border may get something done for a change!
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Gee, sounds kinda like the BATF when they went into Waco, huh? OR the BATF/FBI when they went after Randy Weaver. I remember what the head US Marshal once said when he was responding to an idea that the BATF be folded into the Marshal service (although the Marshals hands are not clean in the Weaver affair): What do you get when you mix clean water with dirty water? ANSWER: Dirty Water
I think a handy solution is to treat the minutemen like a posse from the 1800's. Deputize them to work under the feds. As I said there is plenty of historical and I'm sure, legal precedent.