Keeping down the crime rate on the border

NBC 4 - News - Border Inspectors Find Girl Sealed In Pinata:
"They [a woman and two children] were voluntarily deported to Mexico and the driver plus a passenger of the car -- both American citizens -- were not arrested.
'Bond says the sheer volume of immigrant-smuggling cases far exceeds the government's ability to prosecute all smugglers."

A reminder, if any were needed, that there are two reasons why arrest rates may be lower. Law-breaking could be declining or the enforcers of the law may have become complicit in the crimes. I don't fault the individual officers on the border - they take their orders from the criminals in office above them. Blame Secretary Ridge and the rest of the chain of command. If making arrests is a budget problem, the honorable thing to do is to strain the system to the breaking point and force the Congress to confront their obligation to provide the needed level of funding, not to pretend the problem doesn't exist.