BORDER WATCH : Fence Mending

Good fences make good neighbors. That well-known line doesn’t always apply to the border between the United States and Mexico: Like the border between nearly any two countries, our fence has some intentional holes. After all, a good deal of the traffic in both directions is entirely legal, welcome and economically beneficial to both sides.

But there’s truth in the observation that if Mexico City and Washington don’t get their border law-enforcement act together, much misery and unhappiness is likely to lie ahead. That’s why we loudly applaud the efforts of U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and her Mexican counterpart, Jorge Carpizo MacGregor, to “intensify communication” and “stimulate cooperation” on border problems.

Progress on this issue is in both countries’ interests. Mexicans who protest that nothing good can possibly come of cooperation with the United States fail to appreciate that a program of coordinated, concentrated border control could help reduce violence against Mexican immigrants here and streamline enforcement of U.S. laws. The current U.S. border operation at El Paso may yield information on effective techniques.

U.S. domestic support for NAFTA, the U.S.-Canadian-Mexican free trade accord that is in domestic political difficulty here, will grow if Mexico City and Washington are seen as working hand in hand on the border issue.

Nothing will be gained, and much can be lost, if the problem is ignored--in lives, in mutual goodwill, even with NAFTA. May Reno and Carpizo continue to talk--and make substantive progress.