"As a law enforcement program, Operation Border Star has been a failure because it encourages police and sheriff's departments to measure their success based on everyday policing activities," said Laura Martin, an American Civil Liberties Union of Texas policy analyst, who helped write the report.

The ACLU obtained incident reports from 11 police agencies, which collectively received about $5 million in state grants from Gov. Rick Perry to participate in Operation Border Star. They included the El Paso Police Department and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.

The police agencies made more than 45,000 traffic stops and searched more than 12,000 vehicles in 2007 and 2008. During the same period, they arrested just 58 people for gang-related crimes; 53 of those arrests were by the El Paso Police Department.

Rebecca Bernhardt, also with the ACLU , said the state should provide better oversight to make sure border security dollars are spent effectively, especially because of the tight budget.

This year, Perry is asking lawmakers to approve $135 million for border security and anti-gang operations. In 2007, the Legislature set aside $110 million for those efforts.

"Counting every penny matters right now," Bernhardt said.

The governor, Bernhardt said, should also require an independent investigative agency to review departments on the border, where police leaders have recently been charged with corruption. Last year the Starr County sheriff and a Hidalgo County sheriff's deputy were indicted on federal drug trafficking charges. Those two departments received nearly $5 million from Perry for border operations between 2005 and 2008.

The ACLU said it found a history of ineffectiveness with Perry's border operations, starting in 2005, even though its report focused on later years.

The first border security effort that Perry's administration funded, Operation Linebacker, gave nearly $10 million to Texas sheriffs. An El Paso Times analysis of reports from that operation showed that the departments arrested seven times as many undocumented immigrants as people wanted in criminal investigations.

In El Paso County, the operation sparked a civil-rights lawsuit against then Sheriff Leo Samaniego.

Perry sent departments all over the state $4 million in 2007 for Operation Wrangler, and reports showed that effort netted twice as many undocumented immigrants as criminals. The Mexican consulate in Dallas said officers were using racial profiling to stop Hispanic drivers.

Perry has also dedicated more than $2 million since 2006 to installing Web cameras along the border, a project El Paso Times investigations have revealed produced only a handful of arrests.

"Perry pushes policies solely for politics," said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso. "Now, we need sober well-conceived border policies, because now the threat is real, dangerous and growing."

El Paso Police Department Assistant Chief Peter Pacillas said the Border Star program made the city safer. He said the money helped police target crimes, such as auto theft, which are related to drug and human trafficking on the border.

"It helped us out," Pacillas said. "It dropped our auto-theft crime rate, which also allowed narcotics units and officers in field in general to make more seizures on drugs."

The ACLU report listed the El Paso Police Department as one that used border security dollars most effectively.

It received nearly $1 million for Operation Border Star. Of about 1,100 arrests the 11 police departments made during the operation, more than 1,000 were by El Paso police. The department also led the way in gang arrests.

Pacillas said that, instead of using border dollars to pay officers overtime for more street patrols as some departments did, El Paso police focused on tracking down cars headed to Mexico with drugs, cash and weapons the cartels rely on.

Perry spokeswoman Kath erine Cesinger questioned the accuracy of the ACLU report but said the governor welcomed suggestions to enhance border security and to ensure that tax dollars are spent effectively.

Perry believes his border security strategy is working, she said. "Securing our border is not our responsibility, but it is our problem," Ce singer said, "so we'll take the steps necessary to fill in those gaps."

**Brandi Grissom may be reached at bgrissom@elpasotimes.com; 512-479-6606.