Chertoff: Most Mexican military crossings `innocent.'

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said reports of more than 200 Mexican military incursions into the United States since 1996 were overblown and that most such crossings were innocent mistakes, according to a story by The Associated Press.

The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario, Calif., broke the story Sunday citing the findings of a Homeland Security Department report.

But Chertoff said Wednesday in Washington that the impression "that somehow there is a deliberate effort by the Mexican military to cross the border would be to traffic in scare tactics," the AP reported.
Chertoff warned against treating reports of incursions as "an alarmist issue," but acknowledged that such border crossings do occur.

"I think we average about 20 a year, and a significant number of those are innocent things where ... police or military from Mexico may step across the border because they're not aware of exactly where the line is," Chertoff said.

Chertoff also said some uniformed Mexicans have abandoned their jobs and come to the United States on illegal business and others may be criminals who dress up in military garb, the AP reported.

T.J. Bonner, head of the union that represents some 10,500 Border Patrol agents, brushed off Chertoff's comments as a "diplomatic response" from a "guy whose time on the border can be measured in hours, not years," the AP reported.

Rafael Laveaga, who earlier denied that the Mexican military ever has deliberately stepped on to U.S. soil, had no comment on Chertoff's remarks, the AP story said.

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