PATROL PUSHES BORDER DEFENSE Don't expect the Berlin Wall or a superhighway hugging the Rio Grande. But the Border Patrol is pushing ahead with plans for the military to build as many as 1,300 miles of road and install fences, spy cameras and thousands of stadium-style lights along the river that divides Texas and Mexico. The projects are aimed at combating drug traffickers and undocumented immigrants by giving agents quicker access to remote canyons and ranches that make up the borderlands. But the plans, which come at a time when Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox is calling for a more open border, have some critics charging that Mexico is being cast as the enemy. "We feel they treat us like criminals," said Andres Cuellar, official historian for the border city of Matamoros, Mexico. The Border Patrol contends the additions are necessary to cut down on covert entries into the United States. While it remains to be seen how many projects would be carried out, some frustrated border residents said just about anything would help. "If that is what it takes, that is what it takes," said Tommy Vick, a retired railroad foreman who lives seven miles upriver from Del Rio. Vick said his problem is thieves crossing the border to Texas, breaking into his home, then dashing back to the safety of Mexico. "Just about every week you hear about somebody getting something stolen," he said. Smaller projects would be carried out in other border states a=80=94 New Mexico, Arizona and California a=80=94 according to a five-year plan that calls for unarmed military construction units to take up temporary duty within 50 miles of the border. The joint effort is seen as a way for the military to get much needed training building base camps and roads and for the patrol to stretch its budget and cover a border that is often left wide open for drug traffickers and undocumented immigrants. The roads give agents quicker access to remote canyons and ranches, while the lights take away the cover of darkness and the fences limit areas vulnerable to covert crossers. And since military personnel are already on the federal payroll, the patrol only has to pay for building supplies. The Texas proposals are ambitious, but the military has been working with law enforcement agencies to combat drug trafficking for more than 10 years. Efforts have ranged from building roads in the Rio Grande Valley and West Texas to armed patrols, such as the one that shot and wounded an undocumented immigrant in the back near Brownsville in January 1997 and another that fatally shot a high school student who was herding goats near Big Bend National Park in May 1998. None of the current plans call for armed personnel and none are set in stone.
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