Ever since President Trump said he was sending “the military” to the border to help stem the flow of illegal aliens coming in from Mexico, the media has been in a tizzy. Was it legal? Was it a good idea? Could they really do anything productive? And just what did he mean by “the military” anyway?

Now some of those questions have been answered and several hundred National Guard troops are on the job or at least on the way. But rather than asking the usual collection of talking heads on cable news or the reporters at the Washington Post, perhaps we should ask the people most directly impacted by the decision. Those would be the members of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) forces, more commonly referred to as the Border Patrol. They’re ones who will still have to make all the arrests and coordinate with CBP. Government Executive has the response from some of their representatives and agents this week and it turns out that they’re actually quite happy to see the troops arriving.

I’ll confess that part of the response from the Border Patrol has me rethinking the question of using National Guard troops along the border. (Assuming that we have the whole Posse Comitatus thing sorted out, of course.) I originally wondered what the point of having troops on the border was if they couldn’t track down and detain illegal aliens coming in from Mexico. But while I knew the CBP had been asking for more resources, I didn’t realize how understaffed they actually are. Their representative reports that the Patrol is currently 2,000 agents short of its congressionally defined minimum and they’re just not finding enough qualified applicants to fill their ranks.

With that in mind, we’re being reminded that there are a lot of jobs to be done in order for CBP agents to actually nab incoming illegal aliens and the National Guard troops can fill those roles. They include watching surveillance cameras and sensors, keeping watch from roving mobile units or even performing routine administrative tasks back in the office. That frees up those agents to be out in the field making arrests.

Sadly, if we want a true, long-term solution, the CBP needs to find a way to recruit, train and deploy more qualified candidates. It’s not even a question of money because Congress has funded them above and beyond the level required for the number of agents they anticipated needing. If they want to attract more recruits for a frequently dangerous job in remote locations, new compensation packages and college training and recruitment programs should be considered.