CRACKDOWN CITED IN BORDER KILLINGS

SAN DIEGO -- On a hilly, bushy stretch along the Mexican border one
recent Sunday evening, a U.S. Border Patrol agent encountered an
illegal immigrant who began hurling stones at him. After the immigrant
ignored warnings to stop, the agent fired at the man, killing him instantly.

It was the fourth confrontation between a Mexican and a Border Patrol
agent in a week and the second fatality in as many days. In three
other incidents, Border Patrol agents shot at a Mexican man, wounded a
second man and killed another immigrant involved in an earlier
stone-throwing melee.

As federal officials mark the fourth anniversary of their
controversial effort to heighten security at the border, the shootings
have revived a debate about whether the Operation Gatekeeper program
in California is doing more harm than good.

Operation Gatekeeper has put hundreds of new agents along the 150-mile
border between California and Mexico, boosting the ranks of federal
officers to 2,230 from 996 in 1994. Federal officials also are
expected to deploy thousands of new agents as well as military troops
at the border over the next five years.

Border Patrol officials in San Diego assert the beefed-up security
under Operation Gatekeeper has been successful in deterring hundreds
of Mexicans from illegally crossing into California every day.

For example, the number of arrests at Imperial Beach, the busiest of
eight stations at the border, dropped to about 70 in a 24-hour shift
from 1,500 in a 10-hour shift before the start of Operation Gatekeeper.

Similar operations have been introduced in Arizona and Texas, efforts
that have increased the total number of border patrol agents to 7,700
from 3,400.

The purpose of the program is to stem the flow of illegal crossings
and drug smuggling by securing the border at heavily populated areas
where immigrants could enter and blend in with little detection.

Human-rights activists have complained that the program forces
immigrants to use riskier routes to elude capture. About 320 Mexicans,
according to the activists, have died trying to cross deserts,
mountains and other treacherous areas since Operation Gatekeeper began.

But the recent spate of shootings, they contend, highlights another
set of problems. In its haste to boost personnel, human-rights workers
allege, the Border Patrol has been less diligent about screening
applicants and training and supervising new hires.

This, according to activists, has resulted in the abuse of immigrants
by patrol officers and established a frontierlike mentality in which
agents shoot first and ask questions later.

"Operation Gatekeeper is making a serious human-rights situation
worse. (The federal government should) re-evaluate the human costs and
what Operation Gatekeeper is doing to increase deaths at the border,"
said Roberto Martinez, executive director of the San Diego office of
the American Friends Service Committee, which has called on Atty. Gen.
Janet Reno to halt the program.

"These agents are very aggressive, very violent," Martinez added.
"They don't need to use deadly force for rock-throwing; they can look
for alternatives. It's senseless to have to shoot somebody."

Border Patrol officials defend Operation Gatekeeper, saying violence
and crime at the border have dramatically decreased since its
introduction. Before Operation Gatekeeper, many stretches of the
border were overrun by Mexican bandits who would rob, rape and murder
immigrants entering the U.S.

Agents blame the shootings on the immigrants who, they say, have
become much bolder in their attempts to cross the border. The Mexicans
are having to wait longer periods, sometimes up to two months, to
sneak across, building frustration. Moreover, the immigrants, some of
whom pay smugglers $1,500 to get them over, are less willing to back
down once confronted by agents.

"A lot of (the immigrants) are coached by smugglers to throw rocks to
divert the attention of agents so that others can slip in. You have a
dangerous situation with someone who is willing to do anything to get
across," said Salvador Zamora, supervising Border Patrol agent.

In recent months, Zamora added, several agents either have been shot
at or wounded by snipers or seriously injured by stones hurled by
immigrants. Agents often work alone in dark and desolate spots, he
said, and need to be cautious about their safety.

"Our firearms policy is clear: When you, a partner or a third party is
in danger of sustaining grievous bodily harm then you can use deadly
force," Zamora said.

In its midyear report issued last month, American Friends Service
Committee documented 13 complaints this year from Mexicans and some
Hispanics mistaken as Mexican nationals of verbal and physical abuse
by Border Patrol agents.

The assaults, according to activists, spotlight deficiencies in the
background checking and training processes. Too many unqualified
individuals and even criminals, they assert, are slipping into the
ranks.

Joseph Dassaro, vice president of the union representing Border Patrol
agents in San Diego, agreed that screening was lacking. Last month, he
posted on the union's Web page this stinging complaint about the
agency's hiring practices: "We have recently hired known criminals,
drug smugglers, gangbangers, people out of drug rehab . . . people who
write on a 5th-grade level, and, yes, even illegal aliens."

In an interview, Dassaro cited recent examples in which background
checks and psychological exams failed to send up red flags about three
recently hired agents. One agent was arrested for allegedly smuggling
550 pounds of marijuana across the border in his government vehicle;
another was arrested on charges of raping a Mexican woman; a third was
dismissed after it was discovered that he had been involved in a drug
operation in New York.

"If (the Border Patrol) would have done a background check they would
have found out something was wrong," said Dassaro, who, unlike the
activists, believes the background-check issue is unrelated to the
shootings. "Any time you have this kind of exponential growth (of
personnel), bad apples will slip through."

Human-rights activists have called for the Border Patrol to tone down
some of its tough tactics toward migrants.

Officials at the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation have
complained that agents often provoke conflicts with the immigrants by
pulling them off walls onto the U.S. side and arresting them after
they have fled back to the Mexican side. These officials also
criticize the shoot-to-kill policy for stone-throwing as being too
drastic.

"For God's sake, why aren't (the agents) wearing protective gear so
every rock is not life-threatening? Why are they blocking people from
scrambling back to Mexico?" asked Claudia Smith, director of the
foundation's Border Project and a staff attorney.

For their part, officials at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service, which oversees the Border Patrol, say they are taking the
complaints seriously.

Eyleen Schmidt, spokeswoman for the INS, said the agency is looking at
strengthening the screening process. But she denied that training is
lacking, saying Border Patrol agents receive more preparation than FBI
and Drug Enforcement Administration recruits.

She said the INS is implementing several recommendations from a
citizens advisory panel report last year that called for the Border
Patrol to establish a complaint process in which migrants could report
abuse by agents.

The INS has assembled "a working group to minimize rock-throwing,"
Schmidt said. "We are looking for ways to better protect agents like
retrofitting cars (against rocks) and using protective gear."

Checked-by: Patrick Henry