BORDER RANCHERS SLAM MEASURES TO REDUCE SMUGGLING; DPS, BORDER PATROL TASK FORCE HAS MADE NO IMPACT, THEY SAY by David McLemore, Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News Copyright (c) 1997, The Dallas Morning News THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS March 10, 1997 NEWS; Pg. 1A Contact Info for THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS: Dallas Morning News (TX) DALLAS MORNING NEWS DALLAS TX 12149778321; EAGLE PASS, Texas The rancher's voice rises in frustration. Smugglers use his land freely as a passage from Mexico. They've killed his cattle, ransacked his home, shot at his neighbors. No, the rancher says angrily. There have been no victories in this particular battlefield in the war on drugs. Seven months after the state of Texas launched the first phase of a massive force with the U.S. Border Patrol in an effort to push back drug smugglers and undocumented immigrants, the borderlands of Maverick County have returned to equilibrium, where smugglers have virtual run of the land. And residents feel encircled and embattled. "If anything, the situation is worse than before," said the rancher, who would speak only on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation by the smugglers. "There's more people and more dope coming across the river than before the DPS Department of Public Safety came. All they did was give the smugglers a vacation." Authorities acknowledge that illegal border crossers have become bolder and more violent in recent years. Maverick County law enforcement officers have had increasing reports of dogs and cattle being killed, homes broken into and assaults on border residents. Border drug agents say that smugglers frequently use undocumented immigrants to carry drugs across the river. Joint effort In the face of evidence of heightened drug smuggling and undocumented immigration through this stony stretch where Mexico and Texas meet, state and federal law enforcement officers formed a joint task force in August to help stem the flow. Both the U.S. Border Patrol and the Texas Department of Public Safety praised the twomonth first phase of the operation as a successful, if limited, show of force to the smuggling organizations responsible for running dope and undocumented immigrants into Texas. Some county officials saw it more as a form of political grandstanding. For the rancher, one of nearly two dozen families who have worked cattle along the Rio Grande for generations, the task force was an abysmal failure. "My neighbor's had shots fired at his house while he was eating lunch," he said. "You don't dare leave the house without a gun and every time you leave, you wonder what might happen to your wife. It's like being a hostage in your own home." The border task force, one of the last acts of DPS Director James R. Wilson before his retirement last year, was a direct response to comments made last summer by the White House drug czar, Ret. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, to Maverick County ranchers. He told them it would be two years before enough new Border Patrol agents could be assigned to better secure the border. Governor's approval Texas Gov. George W. Bush, critical of what he considered inadequate containment efforts by the Clinton administration along the border, quickly approved the task force. At its height, the effort included about 100 DPS troopers, brought to Maverick County from throughout Texas, who patrolled highways and backroads leading north from the river. An additional dozen or so criminal investigators and DPS narcotics agents were involved. The Border Patrol gladly accepted the help. With 55,000 square miles and 205 miles of border in the Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, the 395member force is stretched thin, said John Montoya, deputy chief of the Del Rio sector. "This was a show of force for us, a notice to the smugglers that they wouldn't go unchallenged," he said. "During the time of the task force operation, the number of aliensmuggling cases decreased and our drug seizures decreased. That's a success, even if all it really accomplished was to moving the problem, not stopping it." Undocumented immigrant apprehensions and drug seizures dropped after the twomonth task force operation began Sept. 30, 1996, according to data from the Border Patrol's Del Rio sector office. Apprehensions of undocumented immigrants fell from 12,637 in August 1996 to 8,820 in September, then continued to decline. By December 1996, there were 3,212 apprehensions. But those figures mirror the level of apprehensions in 1995 suggesting that undocumented immigration slackens in the winter months. Drug seizure activity improved during the period. More than 67,000 pounds of marijuana were taken in the Del Rio sector in 1996. Seizures began dropping, however, after the increased DPS presence from 6,629 pounds in August, and continued to fall each month through December, when 3,197 pounds were confiscated. That compared to 1995, when increasing amounts were detected throughout the year. Smuggling increase By border standards, Del Rio is a relatively quiet sector. Its 33 tons of marijuana seized in 1996 is small when compared with the 80 tons seized downriver in the McAllen sector last year. But the Del Rio activity represents a 650 percent increase from five years ago, indicating that smugglers are probing the desolate territory between major ports for new crossing points, Border Patrol officials say. "We believe the smugglers had pushed into this sector because of pressure at other points along the border," Deputy Chief Montoya said. "We pushed back." In the wake of the task force, Border Patrol in the Del Rio sector filed more than 259 alien smuggling cases. During the drug sweep, DPS troopers alone made 30 drug arrests, mostly couriers carrying narcotics in their vehicles. DPS officials say their efforts haven't ended, only changed. "The program has gone into another phase," said Maj. Burton Christian, of DPS traffic law enforcement in Austin. "We are now operating as a mobile task force, maintaining pressure along the border at various places at varying times. They don't know where we're going to be." Maj. Christian declined to disclose how many DPS personnel are now deployed, although the number is significantly below the number during phase one. At that time, DPS troopers put in a total of 96,876 work hours in Maverick County, running traffic stops along highways and county roads, Maj. Christian said. The operation cost the state of Texas more than $ 1 million, including $ 789,397 in trooper overtime pay and $ 367,789 in meals, hotel and travel expenses. Violence potential By comparison, DPS spent a total of $ 537,367 for emergency services during flooding in Houston last fall. The impact of the illegal crossing is a jarring contradiction to the times dating back to the Texas Republic. Mexicans and Texans have traditionally lived in relative peace along this stretch of border. In years past, a rancher's wife said, it was common to give food and clothing to the bands of immigrants who crossed the river illegally. "When my kids were small, I wasn't afraid to let them roam and play all over the entire ranch," she said. "Now, I'd never let my grandkids out of my sight. Everytime my husband goes out the door, I wonder what might happen to him." The potential for violence came to a head in January 1996 when Border Patrol Agent Jefferson Barr was gunned down by drug smugglers while on routine patrol in Eagle Pass. It was the firsttime a trafficker had fired at an agent there. Since then, there have been at least a halfdozen exchanges of gunfire around Eagle Pass, authorities said. Agents routinely patrol in bulletproof vests. On Feb. 25, Eagle Pass Police Chief Tony Castaneda testified before a congressional subcommittee that Maverick County was under siege from Mexican drug traffickers who are better armed and better equipped than U.S. lawmen. "What we need from Washington is total commitment. If you're going to war, you need to dedicate to the cause," Chief Castaneda said. Back in his office, Chief Castaneda said federal authorities have never seen Maverick County as a narcotics hot spot. "They just saw us as a sleepy little border town," he said. "Now, there's a big increase in narcotic trafficking, and the feds haven't moved fast enough to put up a resistance." The DEA office in Eagle Pass recently increased manpower from two agents to three, the chief said. "I have six of my officers working with DEA to help them learn the ropes," Chief Castaneda said. "The traffickers can count too." The ranchers living near the river have Chief Castaneda's sympathy. Helpless "These are people who have worked hard all their lives just to feed and educate their kids and put a roof over their heads," he said. "And now, they are captives on their own land. It just eats away at the American spirit. It makes me sick." From the ranchers' perspective, the chief is preaching to the choir. "The task force is nothing but politics," the rancher said. "Meanwhile, some folks have had to walk away from land that's been in the family for generations because they just couldn't take it anymore. I don't know a single rancher here who wouldn't leave if they could." For the rancher, ending his ranch tour at his home, only a halfmile from the Rio Grande, documenting the assault on his land has become an obsession. He keeps a rifle in his vehicle and carries highpowered binoculars to monitor the movement of people across the river. He tells of seeing armed sentries keeping watch on his land. He's identified four separate trails worn smooth by smugglers. He's grown adept at reading muddy footprints to tell how large a group has moved in what direction. Each day, he checks the crossing points, noting how many footprints he's seen, how many fences have been crushed down. Each month, he figures, nearly 1,000 people cross his land. He writes it all down in a notebook, evidence, he says, to convince someone, anyone, that he and the other ranchers are encircled and held hostage on their land. "This used to be a happy place, a wonderful place to work and raise a family," he said. "Now, it's just no fun anymore. And who's going to come to our aid? How long before it turns worse and there's bloodshed? I tell you, this is the most helpless feeling in the world, living along this river right now."