Pubdate: Fri, 08 Oct 1999 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 1999 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Forum: http://www10.nytimes.com/comment/ Author: Diana Jean Schemo DOLE VOWS MORE BORDER AGENTS FOR DRUG FIGHT BORDERFIELD STATE PARK, Calif. -- With the U.S.-Mexico border as her backdrop, Elizabeth Dole vowed Thursday to more than double the number of border patrol agents if elected president, not as a way to fight illegal immigration but to block the flow of drugs from Latin America to the United States. Mrs. Dole, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, promised a renewed commitment to the war on drugs, bringing into the fight two agencies, the U.S. Border Patrol and the National Guard, whose primary mission has not traditionally focused on fighting drug trafficking. She called for bringing the number of agents patroling the U.S. border to 20,000 from about 9,000, and said, "Clinton/Gore continues to nickel-and-dime this agency and has not asked for a single new agent." She also pledged an infusion of high-technology equipment for the border service. But a spokesman for the Border Patrol in San Diego, Roy Villareal, said it had hired more agents and updated equipment since 1994 under "Operation Gateway," an effort to stem illegal immigration. Similar operations had been started at other major border crossings. The patrol's problem was not lack of money, he said, but recruitment and attrition. "For every 54 people we interview," he said, "we have one recruit." In other respects, Mrs. Dole's proposal resembled the tenets and language of a group of conservative Republicans in Congress, led by Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman of upstate New York, who have pummeled the Clinton administration over drug policy, particularly in Colombia. Mrs. Dole called rebels who control a swatch of Colombia the size of Switzerland "narco-terrorists" and "narco-guerrillas," as Gilman does, and said she would cut off all military aid to Colombia until the government there forced the rebels to evacuate the area. "We will fight along the border," Mrs. Dole said. "We will fight on the streets; we will fight in our neighborhoods; and we will fight in our schools." Though congressional Republicans have called on the Colombian government to reclaim the rebel-held area, it is hardly clear the Colombian army could do so. Mrs. Dole's speech came a day after the Clinton administration announced that it would ask Congress to approve $1 billion to $2 billion in aid to Colombia, where all sides, from leftist rebels to right-wing paramilitary groups, feed off a drug trade that supplies more than 75 percent of the cocaine sold in the United States. Thursday's policy statement was Mrs. Dole's third in the last two weeks. She delivered it earlier than expected, perhaps to counter speculation about whether she will remain in the race. Earlier, she had spoken on education and defense policy. Mrs. Dole, a former president of the American Red Cross and a two-time Cabinet secretary, said she realized that drugs were not at the top of voters' agendas, but said she cared deeply about the issue. "Just outside the nation's capital, a 16-year-old girl turned in her parents for growing and smoking marijuana," Mrs. Dole said. "Think about the message that young woman was getting at home." As she headed to a fund-raiser in San Francisco, somebody asked Mrs. Dole whether she thought "this war was winnable." It was not clear whether he meant the war on drugs or the war for the White House. Mrs. Dole turned and gave the thumbs up sign. "Oh, it's winnable," she said. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea