New Border Drug Policy Dampens Holiday Spirit for 2 Southern Visitors

Donal Bishop and Jack Heicklen won’t be spending Christmas in San Diego.

In fact, the two young men wouldn’t mind if they never saw San Diego again.

Bishop, from a small town in Mississippi, and Heicklen, from Miami, were among the very first travelers to gain personal experience with a new get-tough drug policy established last week by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Instead of basking in the summery splendor of Christmas Eve in America’s Finest City, they spent Wednesday afternoon at the federal courthouse, pleading guilty to misdemeanor drug charges and making plans to leave the state as quickly as possible.

U.S. Atty. Peter Nunez announced the new policy Dec. 15. Aiming to stem the demand for illicit narcotics, Nunez said anyone caught crossing the international border in possession of any amount of illegal drugs would be prosecuted, rather than being allowed to resolve the matter through administrative processes as in the past.

It didn’t take long for international travelers to run afoul of the new rule.

On Dec. 16, Bishop, 24, and Heicklen, 22, having checked out Tijuana during their first visit to the West Coast, drove through the border inspection area at San Ysidro to return to the United States.

In a festive spirit, the men, buddies from their service together in the Army, had affixed a live wreath to the front of Bishop’s pick-up truck. Customs inspectors said the wreath would have to be sprayed for bugs, and they ordered the men to pull into the secondary inspection area.

When the inspectors found in the truck a pipe for smoking drugs, Bishop and Heicklen admitted they each had concealed a small amount of marijuana in their pants. Bishop had four grams, about enough to roll four cigarettes. Heicklen had three grams, enough for three smokes.

The authorities gave them each a Christmas gift--a summons to appear in court on a felony charge of importing a controlled substance and a misdemeanor charge of possession. Under the old rules, they would have been fined at the border and the drugs confiscated.

Like two other defendants charged under the new policy, Bishop and Heicklen showed up as required in U.S. Magistrate Irma Gonzalez’s courtroom Wednesday. And, as prosecutors hoped, they pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charges and said they had learned a lesson from their arrests.

“I realize what we did was wrong and it won’t happen again,” Bishop promised in a drawl as thick and deep as Mississippi silt.

Later, he had a suggestion for others traveling from Tijuana into San Diego. “I don’t advise no one to take no pot across,” Bishop said.

Defense attorneys were less sanguine about the proceedings and the new prosecution policy, which they fear will clog the federal courts with minor cases while doing little to deter drug use.

“It certainly is taking resources from Customs and (the) Immigration (and Naturalization Service) at the port of entry and from prosecutors in their office, when it seems to me those resources could be spent going after major drug sources,” said Judy Clarke, executive director of Federal Defenders Inc., the nonprofit law office that represents the bulk of indigent defendants in federal court.

Defense attorneys are expecting to handle 40 to 50 additional cases each day once the new policy is in full swing, according to Barbara Duey, a Federal Defenders lawyer who advised Bishop and Heicklen.

Though many cases--like theirs--will be handled expeditiously, others are likely to bog down, Duey said.

On Wednesday, for instance, two Mexican nationals pleaded innocent to charges filed under the new policy, rather than plead guilty and risk a threat to their resident alien status. The two men’s cases--one for possession of one gram of marijuana, one for having 0.2 grams of cocaine--were scheduled for preliminary hearings next month.

Gonzalez stopped short of finding Bishop and Heicklen guilty, placing them on probation for one year under a provision in the law that allows the charges against them to be dismissed if they are law-abiding for the next 12 months.

The men, who had expected to be fined, were relieved. They also were ready to leave town. They had come to California to work as painters, but the contract fell through.

The trip did not get any better as time wore on.

Heicklen said they would set off for Arizona as soon as they had been fingerprinted.

Added Bishop: “When we walk out of this building, it’ll be the last time San Diego sees us.”