BORDER WATCH : Just Too Good?

Policing the U.S.-Mexico border was never easy, and it’s even tougher now amid growing concern in this country over drug smuggling and illegal immigration.

In the past, aggressive U.S. law enforcement on the border led to violent incidents in the heavily populated San Diego-Tijuana area. But in the last two years the rate of crime and violence there has dropped, and U.S. law enforcement says credit belongs to an elite Mexican police unit known as Grupo Beta.

Specially selected from other Mexican police agencies, Grupo Beta’s officers are better paid and better trained than many of their counterparts. They report directly to Mexico’s interior minister, who reports to President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Grupo Beta officers aim to stop border crime whether it is committed by common thieves, sophisticated smugglers or even by other police officers. They have worked in close cooperation with U.S. law enforcement agencies like the Border Patrol and the San Diego police.

Recently, however, the founder of Grupo Beta, Javier Valenzuela, was transferred to another job. Officials in Mexico City claim it was time for a routine change. But it’s possible the elite unit’s high profile stirred up resentment among other Mexican lawmen, and an effort could be under way to bring Grupo Beta down a notch. If so, that would be a mistake. As Valenzuela used to say, “Beta works in a glass house.” And if its courageous campaign to make the Tijuana border area safer were to regress, that could have negative ramifications as far away as Washington, D.C.