The Czar can do no wrong

I suppose using the term “Czar” for the bureaucrat whose job is to coordinate between all the other bureaucrats on a specific goal is unavoidable.  THE Czar was the autocratic head of a fractious empire of uncontrollable petty aristocrats who ran roughshod over their local people.  And, the guy who could bring down the wrath of the whole state on anyone who questioned the value of any particular whimsical decision he made, without facing consequences.

One hopes, in a democratic state, picking a “Czar” is done with some care, and concern for the decisions made in the past.  Although Mexico welcomes the Obama Administration’s acceptance of U.S. responsibility for the gun and money smuggling operations that are undermining security on this side of the border, there is concern about treating a separate border issue, migration (emigration from here, immigration there) — seen as rooted in economic problems and agricultural policy —  as a security and law enforcement issue as well.

The [Mexico City] News, in today’s editorial, wonders if “border Czar” Alan Bersin’s background in mishandling migration enforcement isn’t a bad sign for the future.

Perhaps people have been blinded by all the recent gestures of bilateral cooperation, but hardly a note of protest was raised this week when the White House made a very questionable choice in naming its new border czar.

New czar Alan Bersin essentially held the position before when he served as the U.S. Department of Justice’s special representative for the southwest border from 1995 to 1998 during the Clinton administration. During that period, he oversaw the implementation of Clinton’s new Operation Gatekeeper, an effort that sealed off the border at San Diego and El Paso and pushed migrant flow into the southwestern desert.

According to the University of California at San Diego, migrant deaths at the border rose from 87 in 1995 to 499 in 2000, an increase of 474 percent. Nearly 3,000 deaths were reported during the first 10 years of the program.

In an interview this week with the San Diego Union-Tribune, Bersin said the deaths “were largely a function of the migrants being taken [to the desert] by smugglers.” But that’s a cop-out. The government’s intention was to push the migrant flow into less-populated areas so that they’d be easier to spot and catch.

In a story by the Arizona Daily Star, Andres Rozental, Mexico’s deputy foreign relations secretary from 1988 to 1994, defended Bersin’s role in Operation Gatekeeper, saying: “I think he was acting under instructions of his government.”

Sorry, but we’re not buying the “just following orders” excuse. We’d like to see Bersin own up to the failures of Operation Gatekeeper, and we’d like to hear someone, especially on this side of the border, make a bigger stink about his appointment.