SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL

Border mayhem

Mexico, U.S. must join to curb violence

August 15, 2008

Have you ever wondered what happens when bullets pierce borders? We can tell you this much: Nothing good.

The United States and Mexico are on opposite sides of another international incident now that a U.S. Border Patrol agent from the San Diego sector has shot and wounded a Mexican man who was hurling rocks at the agent. When the man was shot, he was on Mexican soil.

This isn't unprecedented. There were similar incidents before U.S. authorities began Operation Gatekeeper. But nor is it an everyday occurrence, and thank goodness for that.

Mexican officials are furious over the whole affair. Mexico's consul general in San Diego, Remedios Gómez Arnau, decried the shooting and declared that, when confronted with rock-throwing, Border Patrol agents “should have waited for response of the Mexican authorities.â€