Roger that.  Ex-Special Forces being called un-trained personnel.  I wonder if Estrada is kin to chief Moose.

I've worked with (not for) the U.S. Border Patrol on the Texas / Mexico border.  

From my observations, they are doing an excellent job, but are stretched way too thin when it comes to personnel and resources.

They need whatever help they can get.  Granted, having someone getting killed may open the ranch owners up to legal ramifications - I would leave the discretion to help entirely to the opinions of the land owners.

The Border Patrol themselves have quite an obstacle trying to gain permission from ranch owners (some folks are sympathetic to the illegals).  I can understand them (BP) getting a little peeved if some of these "volunteers" showed up unannounced and without permission.

That's why the Ranch Rescue team caught the smugglers within 15 minutes - the illegals KNOW which property owners are sympathetic to their cause or disallow the BP to come on property.  

You should see some of the tunnels created through the vast sugar cane growth by the river - it appears to be used at least once a week.

I'm all for people helping the greater cause - but they do need to be coordinating regularly with the ranch managers / owners.

Yeah, the Border Patrol is doing a great job, except for the Border Patrol and Customs Agents that assist the smugglers in getting their drug loads across the border for a payoff.  And don't deny that it happens.  Every year I see these guys arrested and in chains when they get busted for taking payoffs, gifts, sexual favors for letting a car across the port of entry full of coke, or are caught leading a group of mules across while keeping tabs on their co-workers for the smugglers, ratting out a sting, or attempting to set their honest co-workers up to get killed.  Isn't an agency I would want to be employed with.  To many dirty employees all the way to the top.  If you don't live down here you wouldn't believe it.  We need the military to lock up this Southern border.  

Such as, this guy I knew.  Somehow his first wife ended up dead mysteriously when she was going to divorce him.   Type "Border Patrol Agent arrested" in your browser and you'll get over 12,000 hits.  Read some of them and you'll see why we have a problem on this border.
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Border Patrol agent's '97 conviction upheld
PHOENIX A federal appeals court has upheld the 1997 conviction of a former Douglas area Border Patrol agent. Jorge Luis Mancha is presently serving a 30-year sentence in federal prison for his conviction on 13 counts of drug trafficking and money laundering.

U.S. Attorney Jose de Jesus Rivera announced the March 17 decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday in Phoenix. According to prosecutors, Mancha used his position to assist the importation of large amounts of cocaine and marijuana into the United States at Douglas. He used a hand-held radio to direct the timing and crossing points for narcotics loads belonging to co-conspirators. In September 1995, another Border Patrol agent overheard the radio communications and recognized Mancha's voice directing the entry of a vehicle carrying 1,232 pounds of marijuana valued at $7.8 million. Mancha was arrested three days later by investigators from agencies including the Border Patrol, Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Customs Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Douglas Police Department and the Pima County Sheriff's Department.

We currently have thousands of Mexican nationals in Federal, state and private prisons and INS detention facilities in Arizona at this moment. Crimes relating to murder, rape, illegal entry, drug smuggling and everything in between.