FEDERAL HELP NEEDED

Funding For Prosecuting Drug Cases Must Be Increase

The federal government again is forcing El Paso County's district attorney
to take drastic measures to drive home the point that the feds need to pay
for prosecuting federal drug cases.

The issue was supposed to be resolved, at least partially, in June when
District Attorney Jaime Esparza, and border prosecutors from four U.S.
states first threatened to stop prosecuting federal drug cases. That
ultimatum, along with the legislative help of federal lawmakers from Texas,
had its desired effect of catching federal officials' attention -- and
netting a pledge of $12 million.

But three months later, El Paso County still waits for the paltry $1.5
million it is supposed to receive as its share of the allocation to Texas,
New Mexico, Arizona and California. The federal government must provide the
promised appropriation as soon as possible.

It costs El Paso taxpayers about $8 million a year to prosecute about 500
federal drug cases handled by county prosecutors. These are cases that
originate at the international ports of entry and checkpoints, Esparza
explained. Clearly, it's the federal government's responsibility to
underwrite these cases.

The $12 million promised appropriation isn't enough to cover costs for
prosecuting federal cases in the four states, and especially for the Texas
border communities. But it is, at least, a start. The benefit for El Paso
is that it would be $1.5 million less than would have to be extracted from
the county budget (and from local taxpayers).

Esparza's and the other border prosecutors' threats may cause concern,
especially from a public-safety standpoint. However, Daryl Fields, a
spokesman for Bill Blagg, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas,
said federal drug cases will be prosecuted even if the El Paso district
attorney's office doesn't do it. "No one is going to get a free walk," he
said. "We'll do what we have to do."

The federal government's funding neglect of border communities' federal
law-enforcement and prosecution costs is reprehensible. It's a shame that
it takes dramatic threats from prosecutors to grab federal officials'
attention but, apparently, that's where we're at.