U.S. SENDS 500 AGENTS TO MEXICAN BORDER

WASHINGTON -- Hundreds of federal agents, along with high-tech
surveillance gear and drug-sniffing dogs, are headed to the U.S.
Southwest to help Mexico fight drug cartels and keep violence from
spilling across the Mexican border, Obama administration officials
said yesterday. The border security initiative, which expands on
efforts begun during the Bush administration, is aimed at drug
traffickers who have wreaked havoc in Mexico in recent years and are
blamed for a spate of kidnappings and home invasions in some U.S. cities.

The plan was announced as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
prepares to travel to Mexico today for the start of several weeks of
high-level meetings between the two countries on the drug violence
issue. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and
Attorney-General Eric Holder are expected to meet with Mexican
officials in early April.

The Obama administration's multi-agency plan includes nearly 500
agents and support personnel. However, officials did not say where
the additional agents will come from or how long they will stay at the border.

Ms. Napolitano said officials are still considering whether to deploy
the National Guard to the Arizona and Texas borders with Mexico,
which the governors have requested.

Deputy attorney-general David Ogden said the combined efforts of the
U.S. and Mexican governments would "destroy these criminal organizations."

Authorities said they will increase the number of immigrations and
customs agents, drug agents and firearms-trafficking agents operating
along the border. The government will allow federal funds to be used
to pay for local law enforcement involved in southwestern border
operations, and send more U.S. officials to work inside Mexico.

Mexicans desperate for an end to drug gang murders, abductions and
extortion saw a glimmer of hope in the measures.

"This is what we have wanted for so long. People can leave their
houses again," said taco seller Andres Balderas in Ciudad Juarez, the
bloodiest flashpoint in Mexico's drug war. Cartel violence has killed
2,000 people in the city in the past year.

"They should have done it a long time ago, given they are responsible
for this drug demand and violence," Mr. Balderas added.