Pubdate: Mon, 16 Mar 2009
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author:  Stephanie Simon
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/mexico

CALL FOR BORDER TROOPS QUESTIONED

Some civic leaders along the Texas-Mexico border are beginning to
speak out against a request by Texas Gov. Rick Perry for federal
troops to protect American communities from the drug wars in Mexico.

The White House is reviewing Gov. Perry's request for 1,000 National
Guard troops and six helicopters with infrared night vision. Homeland
Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said last week that the
administration was committed to providing additional resources soon.

Many border officials welcome the promise of additional federal
resources. But some are pushing back against a possible military
deployment, saying federal troops would inflame tensions and spread
fear. They say the border has been unfairly depicted as a scary,
lawless place. "It's incendiary rhetoric," said Tony Payan, a
political-science professor at the University of Texas at El Paso.
"The border gets a bad rap." El Paso, which sits directly across the
Rio Grande from the violent Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, consistently
ranks among the top three safest U.S. cities of its size, according to
Federal Bureau of Investigation crime statistics. "That side of the
story is not getting out," Mayor John Cook said. Bob Cook, who runs
the economic development corporation that covers El Paso and Juarez,
says he hears plenty of concern about instability in Mexico. "It comes
up in almost every business meeting I have, every dinner party I go
to," he said. But he has lived in El Paso on and off for 20 years and
says he has seen no deterioration in the quality of life -- except
that Americans are less inclined to cross the border at night.
Corporations continue to express interest in setting up factories on
both sides of the Rio Grande, he said; four new plants are under
construction in Juarez now. Stationing the military along the border,
he said, "would be completely the wrong thing to do," because
conditions don't warrant it. Both Mayor Cook and the sheriff of El
Paso County, Richard Wiles, reject the call for immediate deployment
of federal troops.

Instead, they are requesting federal help to search all vehicles
heading south into Mexico, in hopes of cutting off the cash and
weapons that sustain the drug cartels and their affiliated gangs.

Southbound inspections are likely to be a key component of the federal
response. Ms. Napolitano has also indicated she plans to send more
border patrol agents. But it is unclear whether that deployment will
be large enough to satisfy Gov. Perry's request.

A spokeswoman for the governor said he was "hopeful we'll get the help
and resources we need" but had not heard from Washington. Gov. Perry's
homeland-security director, Steve McCraw, expressed particular concern
about the spread of gangs linked to Mexican drug cartels and armed
with weaponry including rocket-propelled grenades and .50-caliber
sniper rifles capable of piercing most body armor.

Mr. McCraw said the gangs recruit American teenagers at schools along
the border for drug distribution, vehicle theft, smuggling and other
crimes. And the sheriff's deputies charged with stopping them are
badly outgunned, said Judge Carlos H. Cascos, the chief administrator
for Cameron County in the Rio Grande Valley along the border in Texas.

"We're not going to go out there with a 9mm pistol and take on people
with AK-47s," Mr. Cascos said. "We need to arm law enforcement better
than or equal to the bad guys."

Mr. Cascos said fear hangs heavy along the border. At a recent
children's parade in Brownsville, Texas, the sound of two metal chairs
banging nearly provoked a stampede, he said. Someone yelled "gunshots"
and onlookers fled. The parade was canceled. "People are on edge," Mr.
Cascos said But that tension isn't felt everywhere along the roughly
1,250-mile Texas-Mexico border.

Scott Nicol, an activist who protests the border fencing, took a
recent hike along the Texas border, not far from Brownsville, with his
wife and teenage daughter. He described the scene as peaceful.

"It's very surreal to read stuff in the papers about how this violence
in Mexico is going to spill over," he said. "As far as I've seen,
nothing's going on here."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin