U.S.-MEXICO BORDER OFFICIALS CALL FOR MORE FEDERAL SUPPORT

EDINBURG, Texas (AP) - High-level officials, including Mexico's
border czar and the U.S. transportation secretary, made their way to
this remote South Texas town to attend U.S.-Mexico border summit.

Business leaders swapped ideas on more cross-border projects and
praised the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, which has shot
trade between the United States and Mexico from $51 billion to $257
billion. Doctors from both sides of the border discussed ways to
better prevent binational epidemics.

But while organizers hailed the three-day border summit as a success,
there was one shortcoming: At the closing ceremony Friday, the
invited keynote speakers - President George W. Bush and Vicente Fox -
didn't make it.

"They can discuss these issues in Washington and Mexico City or on
their respective ranches, but if they don't meet on the border, I
don't think it really sends the signal to people on both sides that
border issues are a top priority," said Roland Arriola of the
University of Texas at Pan American, which is hosted the summit.

Arriola said it is critical the two leaders who have vowed to build a
new frontier, meet on the border. Arriola said he will give a list of
recommendations from the meeting to both presidents before they meet
in Washington Sept. 5-6.

"The perception of the rest of the country is that the border towns
are just filled with tumbleweeds, that it's a forgotten land,"
Arriola said. "All they hear about are the drug problems, but the
reality is this is a vibrant, growing region and the best place in
the country to do business."

But while economic growth has boomed with NAFTA, the pact also has
led to uncontrolled growth along the 2,000-mile (3,500-kilometer)
border, depleting water supplies, wearing out roads and spurring
shantytowns. The border population - now more than 10 million
residents - is expected to double in 20 years.

Roma city planner Crisanto Salinas said he's watched 18-wheelers roll
the benefits of NAFTA right past his town. Starr County, where Roma
is located, is among poorest counties in the United States, with
unemployment hovering between 20 and 30 percent. More than 15,000 of
the 25,000 residents in the Roma area are not hooked up to sewer or
water lines.

Like many border community leaders, Salinas has spent more than a
decade asking for funds to supplement the impoverished city's thin
coffers.

"It's been a slow process getting the money down here," he said.
"It's like hitting a building and something comes off, so you grab
those crumbs and keep hitting. You have to be persistent."

New Mexico Robert Rhodes of Eastern New Mexico University said he
wants presidents and federal legislators to tour the region so they
can see that a lot of the communities have not reaped the benefits of
NAFTA but they've suffered the impact it's had on services.

"I think Bush and Fox understand the region," he said. "But we need
to load up cars with congressmen and bring them in here so they can
have a visual image of what's going on."