Counterproductive measure
Ending Mexican aid not way to gain extradition
Beauprez proposal would harm the U.S. more than it would punish Mexico. Tµhere's no question that Mexico needs to change its policy on the extradition of murderers - especially cop-killers - to the United States.
But the so-called "Beauprez Amendment" passed overwhelmingly by the House this summer is not the way to work toward that end.
By treaty, Mexico does not extradite to the U.S. any Mexican citizen who could face the death penalty. Mexico's Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that those who could face life imprisonment without possibility of parole cannot be extradited.
The result has been that Mexican nationals who commit murder in the U.S. and flee to Mexico escape punishment. The most noted Southern California case is that of Armando Garcia, accused of killing L.A. County Deputy David March in Irwindale in 2002.
In Colorado, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey decided to file a second-degree murder case, rather than first-degree, against Raul Gomez-Garcia in the murder of police Detective Donald Young, so that Gomez-Garcia could be returned from Mexico City to Denver to face justice.
In response to that case, Rep. Bob Beauprez, R-Colo., introduced an amendment to the 2006 foreign operations appropriations bill, specifying that no U.S. aid would go to any nation that refuses to extradite those accused of killing a law enforcement officer in the United States.
The Beauprez Amendment passed the House easily, 327-98, drawing the support of every Republican member but 18 who voted against and four who did not vote.
Two powerful Republicans from Southern California, David Dreier of Glendora and Jerry Lewis of Redlands, voted against the amendment, and they've been taking considerable heat for it. After all, 327 House members approved this feel-good amendment that would punish Mexico for its intransigence.
But there's the rub. This amendment would not just punish Mexico. It would in fact be detrimental to the United States, and Southern California in particular, in several important ways.
The $66 million in aid slated for Mexico is not money that goes into the Mexican government's pot to do with as it pleases. It is directed to specific projects that enhance U.S. security, health and welfare:
- $3.2 million for prevention and control of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in Mexico. With the human traffic - legal and illegal - between our two countries, it's good for California to help Mexico control these diseases.
- $30 million in International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement funds to help reduce illegal drug supplies and fight the gangs that bring them into the United States, and to help secure ports of entry.
- $3.6 million to improve Mexico's counterterrorism and law enforcement capabilities.
- $27.7 million to improve Mexico's economic competitiveness, its governmental accountability and the rule of law - the kinds of improvements that are needed to slow the flight of Mexicans to the United States.
Cutting off funds like those hurts the United States as much or more than it hurts Mexico, without necessarily changing the extradition picture. We'd like to see this amendment deleted in the conference committee next month.
Dreier, for his part, has been attacking the extradition problem head-on. He co-authored a resolution, unanimously passed by the House, that the White House should pressure Mexico to change its extradition policy. He sent letters to President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice urging them to apply such pressure. Dreier personally argued the U.S. viewpoint to members of the Mexican Supreme Court. He and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, introduced the Peace Officer Justice Act, formulated with L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca after March's slaying, to make murdering a peace officer and fleeing the United States a federal crime punishable by the death penalty or life in prison.
In a way, this controversy encapsulates the problems in the whole illegal immigration debate. There are plenty of politicians willing to pander to voters by advocating simplistic, shortsighted solutions that come nowhere close to encompassing the whole problem.
But there are few offering wider-ranging solutions that take into account the vast complexities of illegal immigration.
The White House needs to take a stronger role, both in getting Mexico to change its extradition policy and in offering solutions to the wider problems of illegal immigration.
