MEXICAN SOLDIERS IN BORDER CROSSINGS

Heavily armed Mexican soldiers and police are crossing the U.S. border
repeatedly, provoking charges from Capitol Hill that they are providing
cover for drug smugglers and illegal immigrants.

Last year, there were 23 incursions documented by the U.S. Border Patrol,
prompting Rep. Tom Tancredo to contact Mexican President Vicente Fox last
week, asking for an end to these incidents.

The Mexican government denies Mr. Tancredo's accusation and maintains that
Mexican military forces are working the same area as U.S. Border Patrol
agents in fighting the illegal transport of drugs and people into this country.

"It's the other way around from what [Mr. Tancredo] says," said a Mexican
government official, who asked not to be identified. "The troops are
fighting against drugs. And sometimes they get lost in those areas -- there
is no clear marking for the border."

Mr. Tancredo, Colorado Republican, visited the Arizona-Mexico border area
in late April and learned that U.S. Border Patrol agents and park rangers
were concerned about the activities of Mexican military officers,
particularly along a 60-mile stretch of desert in Coronado National Forest.

"They are reporting that they see people coming through with guns. The
concern is that there are people coming through with arms, M-16s,
protecting drug carriers," said Mr. Tancredo, who has proposed using
National Guard troops at border areas.

He added: "And they are not lost."

A drug-enforcement officer who oversees a policing project along the
Arizona border said that such occurrences are "fairly common."

"Some of it is also inadvertent crossing," said Rocky Stone, special
projects coordinator for the Arizona High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

"But there are backpackers with big loads coming this way, and from time to
time we hear about things happening," he said.

A Border Patrol agent from the area said the incursions "are nothing new.
Sometimes they are innocent, other times they are very tense."

Mr. Tancredo -- who has been accused by some Hispanic leaders of being
"anti-immigrant" -- last week sent a letter to Mr. Fox, challenging him to
explain the reported border incidents.

"Having just toured several sections of the border in question, it is clear
that there is no chance whatsoever that the army units were simply lost, or
unaware that they had crossed the border," Mr. Tancredo wrote in the letter.

The Mexican government has in the past said that military and police
agents, like many illegal migrants trying to cross the vast border area,
have become lost during patrols.

The letter in response to Mr. Tancredo from Mexico's ambassador to the
United States, Juan Jose Bremer, said that "the excellent level of
political dialogue that currently exists between the governments of Mexico
and the United States has allowed every case of supposed unnoticed or
accidental crossings of Mexican or U.S. personnel into the territory of the
other country to fully identify the circumstances."

"These are dealt with on a local level," said a Mexican government
official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Every time we have an
authority crossing to the other side, both governments exchange views of
what happened."

There have been several Mexican military and police incursions in the past
two years that have angered Mr. Tancredo. In March, four Mexican soldiers
carrying submachine guns and automatic rifles were detained when they
ventured into the United States and encountered a Border Patrol agent. In
October 2000, 10 similarly armed Mexican soldiers were reported to have
fired on a Border Patrol air unit after taking a position on the U.S. side
near Copper Canyon in California.

In March 2000, Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas, said that two
Mexican army Humvees, reported by the Mexican government to be on an
anti-drug mission, crossed the U.S. border. Two shots were fired from one
of the Mexican vehicles, agents reported, but no one was hit. One vehicle
retreated into Mexico, but the nine soldiers riding in the second vehicle
were detained temporarily before being returned to their country.

"These situations can be very difficult," said Keith Weeks, a patrol agent
and vice president of Local 1613 of the National Border Patrol Council in
California. "We are outgunned in these instances. They have automatic
rifles, and we have handguns." He said that military assistance for drug
running in Mexico is "a definite possibility."

The area Mr. Tancredo examined on his recent visit is filled with
encampments where illegal immigrants stay during their journey north.
Several towns near the border on the U.S. side have street signs
exclusively in Spanish, and border lines are absent in some areas.

But travelers in the area are able to see markers designating U.S.
territory in many places, especially in Coronado National Forest.

For several years, both sides have advocated better marking of the
2,000-mile Southwest border, but with no result. In some areas, trampled
fences are all that remain of the former border marking, while some areas
in New Mexico and Texas have 6-foot-tall monuments as signposts.

But Johnny Williams, who heads field operations for the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, said that incursions along the border are
inevitable given the tense situation. Some degree of corruption on both
sides may be unavoidable.

"Vicente Fox has done a good job in rooting out corruption," Mr. Williams
said. "I would not discount the fact that with thousands of officers on
both sides, there may be someone in uniform doing something wrong."