PACT BETWEEN CONGRESS AND A GROUP OF TEXAS DISTRICT ATTORNEYS WOULD AVERT
BOYCOTT OF DRUG CASES

Congress was negotiating a $3 million deal Thursday night with a group of
Texas district attorneys along the Mexican border in an attempt to call off
a threatened boycott of drug smuggling cases, which had burdened county
governments, an El Paso prosecutor said.

"I think we worked it out in the last hour or so," Jaime Esparza, El Paso
County district attorney, said by telephone from Washington. "I think it
will cover everything. It's $3 million for Texas. There are some details to
be settled, but I think it's going to work out."

Texas border counties have been swamped with federal drug cases from U.S.
attorneys.

District attorneys from five border counties -- Cameron, El Paso, Hidalgo,
Hudspeth and Starr -- threatened to stop accepting "small" drug cases --
usually marijuana busts of less than 200 pounds that federal courts won't
handle.

The deal pins $12 million in emergency appropriations to a military
construction bill that was approved late last night by the House. The four
states along the Mexican border would each receive $3 million to underwrite
costs arising from jailing and trying drug suspects over the next 90 days.

Some prosecutors called it a "Band-Aid" approach that would do little to
solve the long-term problem.

But Esparza defended the deal and predicted that a permanent fix is coming.

"We wouldn't have agreed to continue taking the cases if we thought it was
just for 90 days," Esparza said. "Frankly, the federal government isn't
holding many cards in this dispute."

Congressional aides declined to speak publicly before a news conference this
morning, where Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R- Texas, was expected to formally
announce the agreement.

Before Esparza disclosed the deal, Hutchison issued a prepared statement: "I
made it my highest priority so we do not have any kind of hiatus in the
prosecution of accused drug dealers."

Along the border, district attorneys have complained that heightened efforts
against drug smuggling by the federal government were not backed with more
prosecutors and more courts. Federal courts take only major cases, leaving
the rest to state district courts.

"The increased manpower at the border with new federal agents has not been
well thought-out," Rene Guerra, Hidalgo County district attorney, said by
telephone from Edinburg. "I'm not criticizing, but it's a fact that what
gets the political bite is law enforcement rather than judges and
prosecutors."

Some prosecutors were trying to determine what Texas' $3 million would buy.

"I have reservations about how the funds will be administered and what kinds
of expenses would be covered under this program," said Yolanda DeLeon,
Cameron County district attorney. . "But I think we would be willing to do
this as a short-term, good-faith step to give members of Congress a little
more room to work out a long-term solution."

Meanwhile, U.S. attorneys were still making contingency plans in case the
funding didn't pass or the district attorneys imposed the deadline.

Bill Blagg, U.S. attorney for the Western District, which is based in San
Antonio and covers the border from Del Rio to El Paso, was preparing for his
staff to take over the cases as it has had to do in Webb County since 1997.

Three years ago, Joe Rubio, Webb County district attorney, launched the
campaign for more national support by refusing to accept federal drug cases.

Some prosecutors complain that cases involving as much as a half-ton of
marijuana were being sent to state courts. Heriberto Silva, the district
attorney for Starr, Jim Hogg and Duval counties, said federal officials were
also ignoring related costs borne by the counties.

"If a person is arrested right now and he's a federal prisoner, the federal
government pays for all of his costs," Silva said. "But if I accept the
case, the federal government feels they have no further responsibility. All
we get is a `thank you.' We pay for him, we feed him, we get nothing from
the federal government."

But Blagg said federal officials are worried about the precedent-setting
nature of giving money to border counties.

"I'm sympathetic to them; they've been fighting this battle for the last
three years, but it is still a hard sell," he said.

"If you do this, every DA in the country could hypothetically make the same
case," he said. "They could say the drugs didn't originate in their county,
that they were brought in from outside of the country and they are just as
deserving of funding for these drug cases."

But Silva said all parts of the United States should support the border
prosecutors.

"If you stop the drugs here, then they won't have to worry about it," Silva
said. "That should be in everyone's interest. If they think they've got the
same problems we do, they come down to the border and a take a look."