ABOUT 30 AT RALLY PROTEST TROOP PRESENCE ON BORDER

Esequiel Hernandez Jr.'s death nine years ago at the hands of a U.S.
Marine should be an ominous sign for policy-makers backing President
Bush's proposal to line the U.S.-Mexico border with 6,000 National
Guardsmen, protesters at San Jacinto Plaza said Saturday. About 30
people gathered at the Downtown El Paso park, chanting and carrying
signs to show their resistance to the president's proposals on
immigration overhaul.

Fernando Garcia, director of the Border Network for Human Rights and
the vigil's organizer, said he believed the president's speech Monday
night was intended to satisfy conservatives who have an
anti-immigration agenda.

"These policies are not targeting terrorists, drug dealers or
criminals. They are targeting immigrant workers. They are targeting
communities," Garcia said. "It's extremely sad that the president and
members of the Senate fell into the temptation of militarizing the
border as a solution."

In 1997, Hernandez, an 18-year-old goat herder, was shot and killed by
a Marine corporal who was involved in a drug patrol operation n the
Texas border town of Redford, which is about 270 miles southeast of El
Paso. At the time of the shooting, Marines said that Hernandez fired
two rounds from a .22-caliber rifle.

Despite the tragedy in Redford, Michael Waters, a retired Border
Patrol agent of 26 years, said the National Guard is unlikely to
create an unsafe environment along the border because federal law
prohibits military from engaging in domestic law enforcement functions.

The Hernandez shooting was an isolated incident that should not
prohibit the National Guard from participating in border security in a
supportive role, he said.