USE OF TROOPS ON BORDER HAS CONTROVERSIAL PAST

EL PASO -- The history of the U.S. military on the border stretches
for more than 160 years from soldiers on horseback to guardsmen with
the latest night-vision technology.

"As history has shown, deployment of U.S. soldiers to the border is
often controversial and the use of military personnel to support law
enforcement is at best contentious," stated a military history report.

The paper, titled "The U.S. Army on the Mexican Border: A Historical
Perspective," surmised that historical issues of public perception, Mexican
governmental stability and insufficient U.S. military personnel to secure
the border are still relevant.

The report, written by Matt Matthews, was published in 2007 by the
Combat Studies Institute Press in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

A quick view of a long history shows a pattern of deployments, with
the first known moves predating the current border itself.

In spring 1846, President James Polk sent soldiers along the disputed
border in South Texas. The U.S. claimed that the border was the Rio
Grande. Mexico claimed that the border was the Nueces River.

The dispute led to the Mexican-American War, which ended with the
signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and the U.S.
acquisition of what is now the Southwest.

The Texas-Mexico border could be a wild land. Army forts dotted the
region for protection from Indian raids.

In 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes sent soldiers to the border,
giving them authority to pursue bandits into Mexico, but the matter
was later settled with Mexican authorities.

The 20th century brought growth and the Mexican Revolution, leading to
U.S. troops periodically sent to respond to violence on the border.

The highest-profile border violence occurred March 9, 1916, when
Pancho Villa's forces attacked Columbus, N.M., leading U.S. troops to
pursue the revolutionary leader into Mexico.

The role of the military changed with the 20th century. Border
security slowly became the main task of federal agencies while the
drug war and illegal immigration became hot issues.

In the late 1980s, the military was being used in anti-drug smuggling
work along the border and the El Paso-based Joint Task Force-Six
(JTF-6) was established for secret anti-drug missions. Things came to
a head in 1997.

On Jan. 24, 1997, an Army Green Beret conducting surveillance along
the Rio Grande shot and wounded a man who had fired at him in
Brownsville, Texas. The mission was coordinated by Joint Task Force-Six.

Cesario Vasquez Acuna, of Matamoros, Mexico, claimed he thought the
soldiers were robbers. He pleaded guilty and was sentence to five
years in prison, El Paso Times archives stated.

On May 20, 1997, an 18-year-old goatherd named Esequiel
Hernandez

Jr. was killed by Marines conducting drug surveillance in Redford,
Texas, about 250 miles southeast of El Paso. Military officials said
Hernandez was shot after he fired a .22-caliber rifle at the Marines.

Officials said the Marines did nothing wrong. The U.S. government
settled a wrongful-death lawsuit with the family for $1.9 million.
Ground troops were soon pulled from the border.

In 2006, President George W. Bush ordered 6,000 National Guard
soldiers to help the Border Patrol in Operation Jump Start.

Agent Ramiro Cordero, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in El Paso,
said the National Guard had a variety of duties. Soldiers did
administrative work in offices, manned remote-control cameras and
sensors; military mechanics fixed vehicles and "entry identification"
teams did surveillance on the border.

Operation Jump Start ended in September 2008.

National Guard soldiers are still on the border in New Mexico. Two
months ago, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson deployed the National
Guard after the murder of an Arizona rancher near the border.