GOATHERD'S KILLING CALLS FOR CHANGES

A tragic combination of human errors and bureaucratic bungling killed
Esequiel Hernandez Jr., an 18-year-old goatherder from the tiny border town
of Redmond, Texas, on May 20 of last year.

Two federal agencies were involved in this tragedy: the Department of
Justice, which runs the U.S. Border Patrol Service, and the U.S. Marines,
which had assigned some young and inexperienced servicemen near the border
to assist in the interdiction of illegal drugs coming from Mexico.

A report issued Thursday by the House Subcommittee on Immigration confirms
what many had suspected all along. The two agencies got their
communications mixed up, and the four-man unit of young Marines, not
trained to do narcotics work, shot young Esequiel by mistake.

The report on the incident rightly praises the Marines for conducting a
thorough investigation, but slams the Department of Justice, which refused
to carry out a similar review, much less own up to its responsibility. In
fact, the latter obstructed the investigation of the case by the Texas
Rangers by withholding information.

Despite its eloquence in describing the incident, the House report is
missing one crucial ingredient: A proposal for legislation or policy
changes to ensure that a tragedy like the one that led to Esequiel
Hernandez's death never occurs again.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan