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.