Border Ditch Controversy

After a long career in the INS, most of it along the Mexican border, I am still amazed at the audacity of Mexican officialdom. Every measure we have devised to impede the flow of illegal aliens and drugs through our thin green line has met cries of protest. So it is once again with this latest idea of the proposed ditch on Otay Mesa near Tijuana (Part I, Feb. 21).

Wherein lies the controversy that sparks such “intense opposition” from Mexico’s government? In all the predictable clamor from the south, no one has yet offered a plausible reason for concern. The Mexican Foreign Ministry is quoted with customary diplomatic vagueness: “Solutions to bilateral problems must be found through mutual decisions and not taken unilaterally.” Bilateral problems indeed. Baloney! Mexico has often skirted these issues in the past by claiming them to be our problem, not theirs. What can they show us from the past 25 years that would suggest any effort on their part to stem the flow? Nada .

Mexico’s national politicians nurture their careers by criticizing the U.S. at every opportunity. Nipping at the heels of Uncle Sam diverts attention from their own failure to face problems that for generations have sent their citizens north in search of a decent living.

Whether or not the proposed ditch would safely serve its intended purpose is unquestionably a unilateral concern. Mexico has long since abdicated responsibility in these matters.

BILL GLENN

Santa Paula