Border Problems

Your editorial about lighting the border does a grave disservice to those people who have been involved in the citizens’ demonstrations known as “Light Up the Border.” Their purpose was to arouse some means of protecting the migrants who crossed from Tijuana to San Diego after dark from the border gangs that robbed, raped and sometimes murdered them.

The San Diego special police unit in the early 1980s was formed to do this and was disbanded after three years because shootouts with border gangs became too numerous. With the border fence removed completely in many places, with no lights, the border violence resumed. “Light Up The Border” demonstrations were begun to attract attention to the anarchy at the border. The group is for legal, not illegal immigration. The 14-mile border steel fence, along with over 100 miles of roads and some lights, have eliminated the drive-throughs by smugglers of aliens and drugs. The Border Patrol is more effective, and in fiscal 1992 (through Sept. 1), seized more than 11 times as much cocaine and four times as much marijuana as in the preceding year.

Your paper’s eagerness for the free-trade agreement with Mexico has led to a peculiar conclusion--that only by making the border safe for bandit gangs to prey on migrants can we get along with Mexico. For those fighting drug abuse in the United States, the increase in the seizure of illegal drugs at the Mexican border is highly important, and it is hard to understand why you consider it minimal.

ROBERT O. HUNTER, La Jolla