DEAL WILL PAY BORDER FOR FEDERAL DRUG CASES

A late-breaking deal Thursday between federal lawmakers and border counties
prevented a showdown this weekend, when local prosecutors said they would
stop taking federal drug cases unless reimbursed for their costs.

Congress will make a $12 million emergency appropriation to be shared
equally among Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California for handling
federal drug cases. The emergency action is a temporary measure for the
lingering problem until the new budget year begins Oct. 1. A longer-term
solution will require more money for additional federal prosecutors,
federal judges and marshals.

"I am very happy that we were able to resolve it," said El Paso District
Attorney Jaime Esparza, who was prepared to impose Saturday's deadline for
declining new federal drug cases. "I thought that the deadline was
important, and if we had not reached an agreement, we would have stopped
pursuing these drug cases. We want to help, but we were just no longer able
to afford it."

It costs El Paso taxpayers about $8 million a year for the 300 to 500
federal cases handled by El Paso prosecutors, said Esparza, head of the
Southwest Border Prosecutors, a coalition of border prosecutors from
Brownsville to San Diego.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes,
D-Texas, and other border congressmen rallied support for a $12 million
rider in a military construction bill to avert the showdown with state
prosecutors. The bill is expected to reach President Clinton next week.

"I made it my highest priority because I just think it's important that we
not have any hiatus in prosecuting people who are accused of drug crimes,"
Hutchison said.

As late as Wednesday, Esparza said the July 1 deadline would be imposed
because of the lack of a firm agreement. He and others have been lobbying
for federal help for nearly three years.

"Surprise would be an understatement," Esparza said of the last-hour agreement.

Thursday night, Reyes said, "We've been working on this furiously since
very early this morning."

The temporary agreement buys some time for federal lawmakers to reach a
more permanent solution.

"The ball is in our court, and we're going to move with it," said Reyes, an
El Paso congressman.

He characterized the emergency appropriation as a first step in getting the
federal government to acknowledge its responsibility "to reimburse the
counties that are at the forefront on the war against drugs."

The reimbursement agreement involving federal drug cases will cover
pretrial incarceration in county jails, cost of local prosecutors, indigent
defense counsel, court costs and some miscellaneous expenses for border
counties. Those cases typically involve fewer than 200 pounds of marijuana
seized at international bridges and border checkpoints.

El Paso should get at least $1 million of the $3 million allocated for
Texas, Esparza said.

Texas easily shares the longest stretch of the U.S border with Mexico, but
politics kept it from getting a bigger portion of the appropriation.

Hutchison said federal prosecutors in Texas told her it would cost about $3
million to reimburse border counties until the next budget begins Oct. 1.

Giving other border states an equal amount "was the price of getting what
we needed," she said.

Esparza said he'll keep working on turning the temporary solution into a
permanent one.

"When you look at the big picture in the drug war, the partnership between
state and federal prosecutors has to continue. This is good for everyone,"
he said.

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, said the flap between local
prosecutors along the border and federal officials highlights an inability
by the U.S. Department of Justice to set proper priorities.

"The decision by the U.S. border district attorneys has had an interesting
effect. It has probably helped to force the issue back to where it belongs
- -- and that's the U.S. Justice Department," Gramm spokesman Larry Neal said.

The dramatic increase in federal drug cases -- a 256 percent increase alone
in the Western District of Texas between 1995 and 1999 -- indicates "there
are more crooks, and there are more crooks being caught," Neal said.

Gramm is urging budget writers to make prosecution a priority in the new
fiscal year starting Oct. 1, Neal said.

"We are catching more criminals than ever before because we have built up
customs, DEA and the Border Patrol -- especially the Border Patrol," Neal said.

There is no question that more federal prosecutors and judges are needed to
handle the increased caseload, he said.