Unrest along the Rio Grande

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The Mexican military and police have surrounded five cities along the Rio Grande. They remain in position to face heavily armed drug smugglers in what is undoubtedly a serious counterdrug escalation. Matters have deteriorated to the point that Kent Lundgren, chairman of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, is calling for the U.S. military to assume armed positions along the border — because the situation could quickly spin beyond the control of Border Patrol agents and lightly armed reservists. People call this the "Tamaulipas Drug War" for a reason.

Last week, deadly gun battles erupted between suspected Gulf Cartel gunmen and Mexican troops in the border towns of Rio Bravo and Reynoso. Days later, Mexico's interior minister — Francisco Ramirez Acuna, who had been a key decision-maker on crime, drugs and national security in President Felipe Calderon's cabinet — resigned. Meanwhile, the Mexican embassy in Washington seems actually to be downplaying the gravity of the situation. Drug trafficking is a "shared responsibility and a threat to both our countries and our people," an embassy spokesman told The Washington Times. "President Felipe Calderon has demonstrated his commitment to fight drug-trafficking and organized crime head-on and his willingness to work with the U.S. Irresponsible statements are not the way to deal with it."

But it is not irresponsible to observe that chaos is unfolding just a few miles south of Texas. It is not irresponsible to observe that the Mexican military is engaged in pitched battles with powerful drug cartels for control of border cities a few miles from major U.S. population centers. Nor is it irresponsible to wonder whether, and to what degree, the violence will spill over into Texas and put the lives of U.S. citizens and residents at risk. Turning a blind eye to these threats — now that would be irresponsible.

This is the environment our Border Patrol officers work in. It is volatile and increasingly dangerous. Last year, there were 987 assaults on Border Patrol officers, up from 384 two years earlier. Because of this context we criticized U.S. officials harshly for the vigorous prosecution and imprisonment of former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, which inverted real U.S. border priorities. The two are serving 11- and 12-year federal sentences, respectively, in connection with the shooting of an suspected drug smuggler in the buttocks in 2005 about 30 miles southeast El Paso. The suspect, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, fled a van that carried 743 pounds of marijuana and disappeared into Mexico. He was tracked down by Homeland Security investigators looking to make an example of the case. They granted him immunity to testify against the officers, whom President Bush declined to pardon last month even as he freed drug dealers, carjackers and the recipient of kickbacks in military procurement contracts.

The bipartisan chorus in favor of a pardon is growing. Pardon the agents, Mr. Bush.