HOUSE APPROVES TROOPS TO BATTLE BORDER DRUGS

WASHINGTON - Setting aside Pentagon concerns, House lawmakers Thursday
approved a measure allowing the deployment of troops to the U.S.-Mexico
border for anti-drug and counterterrorism operations.

On a 242-181 vote, the House endorsed an amendment offered by Rep. Jim
Traficant, D-Ohio, to the $288.8 billion defense authorization bill.

The measure would authorize the Defense Department, at the request of the
attorney general or treasury secretary, to dispatch troops to assist the
Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Customs Service in their
border drug interdiction and counterterrorism activities.

"The number one security threat facing America, the weak link, is our
border," said Traficant, a former sheriff and drug counselor.

But critics termed the amendment, opposed by the Defense Department, as
unnecessary and ill-advised.

"The evidence is overwhelming: Our military is stretched to the breaking
point," said Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind.

Instead of dispatching armed soldiers untrained in civilian law enforcement
tactics to the border, Rep. Silvestre Reyes said Congress should provide
more funds for federal law enforcement.

"We need more Border Patrol agents, we need more Customs inspectors and we
need more INS inspectors," said Reyes, D-El Paso, who was a Border Patrol
sector chief before coming to Congress.

Rep. Solomon Ortiz, another former sheriff, also opposed the provision.

"We are painfully aware that drugs are coming across the border," said
Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi. "But the answer to that problem is to increase the
Border Patrol staff along the border, not reinforce it with troops trained
to shoot to kill."

Although Traficant has secured House approval each year since 1997, the
measure has fallen short of becoming law because the Senate has not taken
similar action.

House negotiators have failed to press their position during final
negotiations with their Senate counterparts during past conference
committees - to Traficant's dismay.

"I want some support in the conference," Traficant shouted during the
debate. "This is the House of Representatives. Show some backbone."

Reyes predicted the measure would suffer a similar fate this year.

I am confident that this provision will be taken out of the bill in
conference committee," Reyes said.

Always controversial, the issue of troops on the border became even more
polarized with the 1997 shooting death of 18-year-old Esequiel Hernandez Jr.
during a Marine Corps surveillance mission gone awry near Redford, Texas.

Following the outcry over Hernandez's death, the Pentagon suspended its
anti-drug surveillance operations along the border.

The Defense Department expressed no desire to expand its border-related
activities.

The Pentagon opposed Traficant's amendment, saying it would provide "no
corresponding military benefit."

Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter represents two California counties that
share the border with Mexico - Imperial and San Diego. He said the troops
could help an overburdened Border Patrol and Customs Service by performing
vehicle maintenance, clerical duties and transporting illegals to Mexico or
U.S. jails.