Time to back off on the border

Friday, December 21, 2007 9:23 PM CST

When people are already tense, it’s reasonable to ask why anyone would increase the risk of that tension exploding in violence. Thus it’s reasonable to ask why U.S. border agents are antagonizing the citizens of Mexico.

To discourage illegal immigrants along the Mexican border in southern California, U.S. agents have been taking up positions right on the border, within shouting distance of Tijuana. Youth from ramshackle Mexican neighborhoods have been pitching rocks at U.S. agents or shooting at them with slingshots loaded with ball bearings. The Border Patrol said in a news story that its agents have been attacked 1,000 times in a year, and about one in four attacks happens along the 10-mile stretch of border starting at the Pacific Ocean. A union official said one reason for the frequent attacks is the relatively recent policy of putting agents right on the border.

In retaliation for the attacks, U.S. agents have fired tear gas across the border into Mexico. In some cases Mexican citizens have had to evacuate areas because of the gas, and they complain about ill effects from the irritating chemical. Mexican officials want U.S. agents to stop firing onto Mexican territory. The U.S. government complains that Mexican officials don’t respond promptly to calls for help in controlling their citizens.

It is a situation scarily reminiscent of the border areas between Israel and the Palestinian territories where armed people on both sides exchange occasional fire. The hostilities along the Mexican border are not lethal, but that’s now. It is entirely possible that the projectiles in use will escalate from rocks and tear gas canisters to bullets if one side or the other feels threatened or desperate.

This tension is not unexpected or unexplainable. Immigration is a topical and passionately felt issue, and with the U.S. economy flagging, and with more domestic pressure to control our southern border, it’s to be expected that an economic resentment has been added to whatever anger already festers among the poorer residents of border Mexico.

And all of this, every bit, is entirely predictable, which leads back to the question of why the government is putting agents in a dangerous position. Do we not have cameras with zoom lenses, night vision equipment, and long-endurance drone aircraft with high-powered sensors to spot people crossing the border? Why then are agents standing next to the border when waiting farther back used to be fine, and when along the Arizona border it appears that the real secret to arresting illegals is simply having more agents available? Is this not another example of the truculent foreign policy which achieved so little elsewhere in the world?

Brinkmanship worked during the Cold War only because strict procedures on both sides prevented small stupidities from expanding into large problems. That’s not the case on the Mexican border, and that’s why wiser heads should act now to forestall that moment of misjudgment and overreaction which causes an international incident. The simple and reasonable solution is to pull agents back from the edge, to depend on the advanced technology which the government already has, to bring in more agents, and to let the aggression dissipate. Remove the fuel, and let the fire die down on its own.

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