MILITARY STANDBY SOUGHT AT BORDER UNION OFFICIAL SAYS MORE HELP NEEDED.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military should be called out to protect the U.S. border against military-style incursions from Mexico, the head of the Border Patrol union told a congressional homeland security committee Tuesday.

TJ Bonner, president of the National Border Council that represents 10,500 agents, recommended active or reserve U.S. military units be stationed ``on standby'' at strategic locations along the border.

``If the Mexican military is coming into the United States, our law enforcement agents do not have the training to deal with that,'' Bonner told the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Investigations.

The proposal was one of several that Bonner and Texas law enforcement agents laid out as Congress launched its first investigation into Mexican incursions.

The hearing, which will be followed by one in the Senate next month, comes in the wake of a high-profile Texas incident in which sheriff's deputies said they confronted drug runners who were wearing Mexican military uniforms, driving a military-issue Humvee and using military tactics.

The Mexican Embassy maintains the suspected smugglers, who were not caught, were members of a drug cartel posing as soldiers, and not actual members of the Mexican military. But Texas officials testifying Tuesday said they think they might be both.

``It's everything,' said El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego. ``It's the military, it's cartels buying off military, buying off civilians and dressing as the military.''

Bonner, who also said he believes the incursions are the work of actual military officials, added, ``It's immaterial. If Mexico is allowing this to happen, they bear a large part of the responsibility.''

Lawmakers and even the Texas deputies had mixed reactions to Bonner's suggestion that the military be called out.

Unauthorized Mexican military have entered the United States 231 times over the past decade in what Department of Homeland Security officials call ``incursions.'' Federal officials say the vast majority of those incidents are non-confrontational and that the numbers are declining.

David Aguilar, chief of the Border Patrol for the Department of Homeland Security, noted Tuesday that the number of incursions has declined by more than 50 percent since 2001, and that the agency has no evidence of systematic incursions.

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com