I'm not satisfied that a majority of the border guards are, at this point, competent to carry and, when required, actually use a firearm. Extensive training is necessary. Many officers should not be able to complete the training because it is too intense and/or they are mentally or physically unfit for such a task. The union will fight to keep these employees. The employer will have to hire new employees that can meet the new requirements or else lower their standards to allow the otherwise noncompetent employees to continue in their work. More qualified employees will be difficult to find and recruit. It will be easier and cheaper to lower the standards so otherwise noncompetent employees will be able to keep their jobs.
Thus, you will have armed border guards that may or may not be fully competent to do what you expect them to do - protect the border with force, if necessary. They would still likely have the ability to run away from the border if things got harry. Not a lot different from what we had yesterday except it would be an armed border guard leaving the post instead of an unarmed officer.
Both this alternative and the status quo are not acceptable. I would prefer a wholesale reorganiztion of what used to be known as Immigration and Customs. Unfortunately this would be difficult, costly, time consuming and would result in a drastic reduction in the number of government employees.
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