ACCORD TO EASE MEXICO BORDER DELAYS

Technology Aims To Let In Commerce, Ferret Out Terrorists, Smugglers

EL PASO, Texas - The White House announced a new border security
accord with Mexico on Thursday intended to weed out terrorists and
smugglers but speed up legitimate goods and travelers, many of whom
now wait two hours or more to cross into the United States.

President Bush previewed the announcement at a raucous, campaign-style
airport rally in this border city in his home state before leaving
later in the day for Monterrey, Mexico, for a conference on global aid
to the poor. Bush is to formally announce the "smart border" accord
with Mexican President Vicente Fox in Monterrey today.

"We want the legal commerce, the people who travel back and forth on a
daily basis, the brothers and sisters on both sides of the border, the
relatives that have been coming back and forth for years, to be able
to do so in an efficient and easy way," Bush said to hundreds of
cheering civilians and troops from nearby Fort Bliss in a packed
airport hangar.

But he added that "we want to use our technology to make sure that we
weed out those who we don't want in our country - the terrorists,
the coyotes, the smugglers, those who prey on innocent life."

"Coyotes" are smugglers who illegally bring immigrants across the
border.

The new accord, similar to one between the United States and Canada
announced last December, would expand the use of high technology on
the 1,951-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Regular cross-border commuters
would be issued an electronic pass, as would shorthaul truckers
ferrying containerized cargo. That would free border guards to spend
more time inspecting suspicious people and goods, White House
officials said.

None of the 19 hijackers who commandeered the planes Sept. 11 are
known to have entered the United States through Canada or Mexico, but
worries over the security of the borders intensified after the attacks.

Money for the new technology and security would come out of $40
billion in emergency spending that Congress approved last year after
the Sept. 11 attacks.

The White House estimated that about $1 billion of that $40 billion
would be spent on border security. Bush also said he was asking
Congress for an additional $5 billion for airport and border security
as part of a new $27 billion emergency request sent to Capitol Hill on
Thursday. If approved, White House officials estimated the additional
amount to be spent specifically on border security at $50 million.

After his speech, Bush toured a U.S. Customs Service cargo dock where
he saw some of the new technology in use. Inside a threestory
structure, Bush watched the demonstration of an X-ray machine, similar
to a large CT scanning machine, that is used to inspect trucks for
contraband. Customs officials said the machine could inspect 10 trucks
an hour.

At Andrews Air Force Base, Bush, his wife, Laura, and Secretary of
State Colin Powell met with the family of two Americans killed last
weekend in a church bombing in Islamabad, Pakistan. Bush and his wife
spoke with Milton Green, the director of the computer section at the
American Embassy in Islamabad, and his young son.

The Americans killed were Green's wife, Barbara Green, and her
daughter, Kristen Wormsley, a senior at the American school. Barbara
Green was an employee in the human resources center at the embassy.