The State : Border Squad Set to Deploy

San Diego police say they plan to redeploy a controversial anti-crime squad along the U.S.-Mexico border more than four months after the unit was taken out of action after a shooting that left two Mexican men dead and sparked protests. However, police said they will institute several major changes in the unit, and will begin operations without members of the U.S. Border Patrol, whose officers had participated in the unique squad for five years until it was put on hold for “evaluation” after the shootings. The decision to put the unit back into operation drew immediate criticism from Roberto Martinez, co-chairman of the Coalition for Law and Justice, a San Diego-based rights group. “Its purpose is to prevent crime, but it creates a situation in which it kills more people than the robbers,” said Martinez. During five years of existence, the joint police/Border Patrol squad, made up of about a dozen officers at a given time, shot and killed 18 suspects.