Not a Job for the Marines

Ezequiel Hernandez Jr. did not stand a chance. Sensing the presence of something unknown behind the bushes on the riverbank, he fired a shot or two with his .22-caliber rifle. That would be the last deliberate act of his young life.

From his vantage point, Marine Cpl. Clemente Banuelos could see the teenager, his goats and his rifle. And when the shepherd pointed the .22 in his direction, Banuelos was prepared to fire his own weapon. The Marines’ tactical operations center, 65 miles away, had given him authorization to shoot back if fired on during the joint Marine-Border Patrol exercise in which he was engaged.

Within 20 minutes Hernandez, an 18-year-old Texas high school student, was dead, a victim of war games in a distant patch of the nation’s southern border.

An investigation conducted by the Marine Corps reached the conclusion that there were “systemic failures at every level of command.” The Marine unit was not properly trained for a domestic surveillance operation, the inquiry pointed out, describing the incident as “tragic but justifiable.” They said the Marines did what they were trained to do. No criminal action was taken against anyone.

Now, a year and a half after the killing, the Justice Department still has not conducted its own investigation to determine where responsibility lay within the Border Patrol, one of its agencies. No further delay is acceptable in this case.

The death of Hernandez should serve to shelve the idea, cherished by many members of Congress whose districts lie far from the border, of bringing Marines or any other military force into border enforcement. This job, directed in large part toward curbing drug traffic and illegal immigration, should be in the hands of agencies trained to the task. They do not include military services.