Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says reports of Mexican soldiers frequently crossing onto U.S. are overblown.
Chertoff told reporters in Washington that many incursions are innocent mistakes.
He added that some members of the Mexican army or police have abandoned their jobs and crossed into the United States to do "something illegal."
Also, the secretary says some criminals who have stepped across the border are dressed as soldiers but don't belong to the military.
Chertoff says the department tracks about 20 incursions by the Mexican military every year.
But he says to suggest a deliberate effort by Mexican authorities to step onto U.S. soil would be "to traffic in scare tactics."
The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, California, reported the Border Patrol's El Centro sector, which covers southeastern California, recorded the most incursions since 1996 with 58.
Tucson followed with 39, and then came El Paso with 33 and McAllen with 28. Del Rio recorded just three incidents.
Chertoff is either dumb as a rock or a professor of corruption. I've never been able to understand/justify the logic he uses in any response he has ever given.