INS CHIEF DECLARES OPERATION RIO GRANDE `HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL'

BROWNSVILLE -- The head of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service on Wednesday hailed the 2-year-old Operation Rio Grande as a
"highly successful" effort to reduce illegal immigration and
smuggling, and she pledged that the border operation would not come at
the expense of native habitat and endangered wildcats.

INS Commissioner Doris Meissner said that arrests of illegal
immigrants have dropped by 32 percent in South Texas and that crime in
Brownsville has fallen 19 percent since 1997. She said the next step
is to expand the operation to Laredo and Del Rio as immigrants move
upriver to avoid being caught.

Meissner also tried to assuage the fears of environmentalists by
meeting privately with them for several hours.

Last week, the Rio Grande Valley chapters of the Sierra Club and the
Audubon Society, along with the Washington-based Defenders of
Wildlife, filed suit against the INS and other federal agencies
claiming the Border Patrol was clearing brush and disrupting two
endangered cats, the ocelot and jaguarundi.

"One of the important benefits of a well-managed border is the return
of native vegetation and wildlife to areas where illegal entry has
been curtailed," Meissner said at a news conference. "I'm confident
that legitimate environmental concerns can be addressed in tandem with
Operation Rio Grande and our commitment to effective border
enforcement."

"I'm pleased to hear the commissioner actually, in very general terms,
addressed some of those issues," said Jim Chapman of the Sierra Club.
"It's very clear that she's aware of them, and the agency appears
prepared to deal with them constructively. That's really what we want,
and we're disappointed it's taken them that long to get to that point."

At issue is some of what Meissner called "force-multiplying" equipment
the INS has brought to the border to assist patrol agents, including
30 permanent and 186 portable banks of stadium lights aimed along the
river.

Environmentalists complain that some tactics -- including use of
high-intensity lights and clearing of brush -- run counter to an
expensive and lengthy effort by the U.S. Interior Department to
assemble a wildlife corridor along the Rio Grande.

"You know, lights don't catch smugglers, lights don't catch bandits.
It's agents that catch smugglers and bandits," Chapman said. "Some of
the areas the Border Patrol is taking credit for the decrease in the
crime rate, border banditry and smuggling are areas where there are
yet no lights."

Similar to earlier Border Patrol containment strategies in El Paso and
San Diego, agents assigned to Operation Rio Grande hold highly visible
positions on the river bank at short intervals to discourage illegal
immigrants from wading or swimming the shallow river.

In South Texas, agents have cleared brush, installed boat ramps for 10
river patrol boats, buried 1,048 electronic sensors along the river
banks and wheeled in 36 "Skywatch" towers with powerful lights and
night-vision equipment.

But what was on the mind of many Border Patrol officers was
manpower.

South Texas' ranking Border Patrol agent called Operation Rio Grande
"a work in progress," explaining that while alien smugglers have been
slowed, they are still successful in moving loads of clients north
from the Rio Grande Valley.

"Yes, a lot of them are getting through us, because we are not totally
staffed," said Joe Garza, the Border Patrol's McAllen sector chief. He
said that even more agents are needed in spite of the nearly threefold
increase in his sector since he took command in 1995.

"We have 91 miles of the border here, from the mouth of the river to
near Harlingen, that we feel are being properly managed. We have 280
miles on the border (in the McAllen sector), so we have about 90 miles
controlled and probably another 190 to go," Garza said.

Since the Operation Rio Grande began in August 1997, personnel at the
McAllen sector has increased from 756 agents to 1,139. Additional
agents have posted at stations upriver in Laredo, Del Rio and El Paso.

But the INS has been criticized for failing to meet a 1996 federal
mandate that called for hiring 1,000 new agents a year through 2000.

"Unfortunately we are short of this goal," Meissner said. "It is not
for lack of effort."

This year, INS would have to hire 2,000 new agents to meet the
requirement because it must also replace agents who have left, she
said, adding that the agency intends to focus hiring efforts on the
local area, where unemployment rates remain higher than most areas of
the country during an economic boom.