ARIZONA-MEXICO TALKS FOCUS ON BORDER VIOLENCE

U.S. Senate Ponders Big Changes As Drug Trafficking Keeps Surging In The Region

TUCSON, Ariz. -- For more than 50 years, the governments of Arizona
and its Mexican neighboring state, Sonora, have gathered regularly to
strike agreements, pledge cooperation and bask in border bonhomie.

But meeting here during two days, as border violence and drug
trafficking have swelled and the U.S. Senate considers the most
significant changes to immigration law in 20 years, a deep sense of
urgency, even anxiety, hung over the proceedings.

Although describing cooperation between the two states as good, Gov.
Janet Napolitano of Arizona, a Democrat, said she remained concerned
about an increase in drug seizures along the border and the recent
spate of violence.

Most alarming, Napolitano said, was a firefight last month among rival
drug cartels and the police in the Sonoran city of Cananea, about 100
miles south of here. Nearly two dozen people were killed.

Such incidents are more typical in border cities near Texas. Although
the violence has not usually crossed into the United States,
Napolitano said in an interview, "you don't want to run that risk,
either."

"I hope it is an anomaly," she said, "but I think if it is our goal to
have the safest part of the U.S.-Mexican border, then you can't
presume that it's an anomaly."

Law enforcement officials have said weapons used in the fighting have
come from the United States.

Daniel Puente, a spokesman for Eduardo Bours, the Sonora governor,
said although "we hope it won't happen again," it was "a sign of what
has been happening in the whole country."

He said Sonora has been cracking down on organized crime groups but is
seeking more cooperation from the Mexican government on drug
trafficking intelligence to thwart violence.

At the Arizona-Mexico Commission's summer meeting, there was the usual
signing of agreements between two states that figure prominently in
any discussion of the border -- Sonora as the principal staging ground
for illegal crossers and Arizona as the state that receives more of
them than any other.

To crack down on the financial network that supports human smuggling,
Arizona will train Sonora detectives to investigate wire transfers
that may be directed to guides, known as coyotes, that bring people
over the border.

Arizona officials have claimed success in seizing wire transfers
suspected of being used to pay smugglers in their state, but they now
believe the money is flowing to Sonora to avoid their efforts.

The two governments also signed agreements to improve radio
communication among local, state and federal law enforcement agencies
and to more closely track stolen vehicles used in drug and human
smuggling on both sides of the border.

Napolitano also met privately with officials from the Drug Enforcement
Agency and the Border Patrol, which has been reporting an increase in
drug seizures, principally marijuana, in the past year along the
Arizona border.

Since October, the Border Patrol has seized 648,000 pounds of
marijuana, a 71 percent increase over the previous year, in the Tucson
sector, which includes most of the Arizona border. During the same
period, arrests of illegal crossers dropped 10 percent, to 270,000
people.

Border Patrol officials have attributed both trends to the presence of
thousands of National Guard troops who arrived last summer, deterring
crossers while freeing up agents to make drug arrests.

But they have said there are also indications that shifting drug
trafficking patterns and a bumper marijuana crop on the Mexican side
may be contributing to the increase.

Whatever the reason, Napolitano said the trends demonstrated a need
for more federal drug agents at the border. She said she and Bours
would also continue to address the problems locally.

"What we did was decide as governors we could not wait all the time
and say it is only a federal responsibility to respond," she said,
listing various task forces and agreements the states have reached in
recent years.

Napolitano has also been advocating for the comprehensive immigration
bill in the Senate.

She said President Bush's promise of $4 billion in additional money
for border security "will help get Republican votes" for the measure.
Napolitano had backed the "grand bargain" version of the bill that was
pulled from the Senate floor last week, and she said she would
probably support a new version of the bill.

"I haven't seen what they've changed," she said.

Whatever the outcome, Napolitano said Arizona and its border neighbor
would continue to forge cultural and economic ties, something the
twice-yearly meeting seeks to celebrate and advance. The next meeting
is in Sonora in the fall.

"There is an ongoing relationship that happens even in the midst of an
immigration meltdown," Napolitano said. "I think it's reflective of
the fact borders don't need to be -- how do I say this? -- that there
are challenges but also opportunities."