The core issue here is the same one raised by terrorist attacks: The federal government has a duty to defend Americans against killers who enter our country and murder our people. It doesn't matter whether the killer is from al Qaeda or a drug gang. The duty is the same.

Mayors and governors can run schools and build highways. But only the president can make a foreign government hand over a fugitive who has killed an American. President Bush needs to confront President Fox: Is Mexico with us, or against us, in seeking justice for killers?

Teri March, Kayla and Deputy March's parents, John and Barbara, visited Washington last May for the Peace Officers Memorial. Speaking there, President Bush quoted Deputy March: "My goals are simple. I will always be painfully honest, work as hard as I can, learn as much as I can, and make a difference in people's lives." At the rope line, the president spoke to the family.

Teri says she told the president how Mexico was refusing to extradite the suspected killer. "And he said, 'We'll get him back.' Then he gave me a big hug," she says.

After not receiving responses from letters she says she sent the president last year (including one that was hand-delivered at the Peace Officers Memorial), Teri sent another in December by certified mail. (The return receipt says it was delivered Jan. 6, and presidential spokesman Allen Abney told me this week the White House recently mailed Teri an initial acknowledgement of it, stating that the case had been referred to the Justice Department.)

Cooley, says spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons, has not received a reply. Nor have 33 House members who also wrote the president Jan. 9 asking him to take up extradition with Fox.

In her own note, Kayla recalls the president quoting her stepfather. "On that same day," she wrote, "you . . . told us that you were going to get this guy back. Mr. Bush, I am still waiting for you to fulfill your word to us."

The March family deserves action from the president aimed at making Mexico unconditionally extradite killers. So does the rest of America.