At least, that's what the Mexican consulate here in San Diego seems to be saying.

Mexican officials filed a formal complaint with the Border Patrol yesterday after agents arrested a Mexican family on their way to the Mexican consulate in San Diego.

According to the consulate, the five family members were within a block of the consulate about 6:50 a.m. when four Border Patrol agents stopped them. The five were arrested when they couldn't prove they were in the country legally. They were deported to Mexico hours later.

Let me say that I'm sympathetic to the plight of the Mexican people. Decades of corrupt government has left far too many of them poor as dirt. But the outrage from the Mexican consulate is, well, outrageous. Just how large is the radius around the consulate within which Border Patrol agents are prohibited from enforcing immigration laws?