BORDER LAWYERS BACK OFF DRUG BAN

HARLINGEN, Texas (AP) - Texas border-town prosecutors backed off their
threat to stop handling federal drug cases after Congress agreed Friday to
kick in $3 million toward court costs.

"It's not enough. It's not nearly enough," Cameron County District Attorney
Yolanda De Leon said. "But it's a beginning."

The other three states bordering Mexico - New Mexico, Arizona and
California - will each receive the same amount. No prosecutors there had
made similar threats.

The federal government still faces an ultimatum in Texas: If more money or
a better plan hasn't emerged from Washington by Oct. 1, courtroom doors
will shut again, De Leon said.

When U.S. authorities seize less than 50 pounds of marijuana on
international bridges, they usually send the case to a state court, which
must then pay for the trial and jail. Federal agents handle just the big cases.

"We have no say-so in the matter," De Leon said. "We know we got the case
when it shows up in our office."

She estimated that the soaring number of drug cases costs border states
more than $100 million a year in courtroom and jail expenses.

Four Texas district attorneys had threatened this spring to stop handling
such cases beginning Saturday. The job would have then fallen to the
federal prosecutors serving the Texas border area.

At least one border district attorney was not appeased, however. Webb
County's Joe Rubio will stick to the drug case ban he laid down in 1997.

"Hey, come on, we can't afford it," Rubio spokesman Tom Sanchez said
Friday. "It's a federal problem, and it's time for them to pony up to the
bar and buy a round like everybody else."

If the Texas prosecutors drop the drug cases altogether, the two U.S.
attorneys' offices serving the Texas border will be left to pick up the slack.

That's no small task for the federal courts, whose caseloads have more than
doubled in the past five years.

"We'd find a way to do the cases one way or another," said Assistant U.S.
Attorney Rick Lara.