San Clemente Wants Action on Checkpoint Move

San Clemente city officials, tired of seeing U.S. Border Patrol chases end in bloody accidents on their streets, are angry over Congress’s delay in funding a long-proposed relocation of the immigration checkpoint just four miles south of the city limits.

“It’s like a time bomb,” San Clemente Mayor Brian J. Rice said. “One day the chases will result in some innocent adults or children being killed on the streets of our city.”

City officials’ longstanding concerns about the checkpoint were reinforced last month when 10 people were injured after they jumped from a van that Border Patrol agents were chasing on Interstate 5 in San Clemente. The chase began when the van’s driver sped off while being questioned at the checkpoint.

The move five miles farther south into San Diego County was first proposed three years ago by the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service, which runs the checkpoint near the San Onofre nuclear power plant. The new checkpoint would be expanded from four lanes to 16, both to facilitate traffic on northbound Interstate 5 and to reduce opportunities for illegal immigrants to evade arrest.

The proposal has the backing of Sen. Pete Wilson (R-San Diego) and Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad). The Defense Department, which owns the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base, the site of both the present and proposed checkpoints, also approves of the change, according to Packard’s office. But action has lagged in Congress, mainly because of the $30-million cost of the project, Packard said in an interview last week.

“It’s hard to get money authorized because of the tight-budget situations,” Packard said. But the cost is justified, Packard said, because the new checkpoint might save lives as well as aid the government’s efforts to stop illegal immigration and illicit drug smuggling.

As many as 10 people died last year in accidents at the checkpoint, city officials said. San Clemente Fire Department paramedics, who respond to such accidents, said the victims usually are illegal immigrants who jump from vehicles stopped at the checkpoint and are struck as they dart into southbound traffic on Interstate 5.

Charles Geer, patrol agent in charge of the checkpoint, said that he had no exact statistics on fatal accidents at the site but that “about eight to 10” people have been killed in the last year while running on foot into oncoming traffic.

Geer said the proposed new checkpoint would be safer for all concerned, including motorists, who sometimes fail to slow down in time at the existing checkpoint and slam into the line of stopped vehicles.

“There would be a minimum traffic backup,” Geer said, referring to the multilane design of the proposed new checkpoint. And Geer said the chances for high-speed chases running into San Clemente would be reduced at the new location.

“I think a new checkpoint would help our situation,” San Clemente Police Chief Albert C. Ehlow said. “The configuration (for the proposed checkpoint) makes it more difficult for a high-speed chase to begin. Then, too, if a chase were to start, the new checkpoint would be five miles further south from San Clemente, giving them more time to head off the suspects before they got to our city. We’ve had problems with those chases for many years.”

San Clemente Fire Chief Thomas F. Dailey said the city is under contract with San Diego County to provide emergency medical services at accidents in the San Onofre area, including the checkpoint.

“It’s terrible when some of the people get killed there trying to run away across the freeway (and into oncoming traffic),” Dailey said.

Packard said he has pushed the safety angle in trying to drum up congressional support for a new checkpoint. At one time, Packard said, the relocation proposal seemed to have broad support in Congress.

“But now it seems to be in limbo,” Packard said.

Last year, Packard and Wilson succeeded in getting $2.7 million earmarked for engineering and design studies. But at the last minute, a congressional conference committee deleted the designation, and money was spent elsewhere.

“Now we’re back to square zero,” Packard said. “Sen. Wilson and I are now hoping we can get the funding for the checkpoint inserted into one of the anti-drug bills. If not, I’ll try to get the funding into a highway appropriation bill.”

Packard said the need for the new checkpoint is urgent.

“We are well aware of San Clemente’s long desire to halt the high-speed chases from coming into there, and we believe this is the way of preventing those situations,” Packard said. “We also think a new checkpoint would be much more effective in drug interdiction.”

Busiest in Nation

The checkpoint near San Clemente is the busiest in the nation, according to the INS. In 1988, agents there captured 54,678 deportable illegal immigrants and arrested another 800 who were involved in smuggling operations, according to Packard’s office.

The checkpoint also recovered stolen property--including cars and items burglarized from homes--totaling more than $2 million in value last year. A total of 128 narcotics seizures were made, netting drugs with a total street value of $3.6 million.

The checkpoint was designed primarily to intercept illegal immigrants. But as the flow of illegal drugs has increased, the station increasingly has become a focal point in the nation’s war on illicit narcotics.

Packard said he stresses the anti-drug theme in pushing for congressional approval of funding for a new checkpoint.

“We, of course, know how important it is to stop the high-speed chases into San Clemente,” Packard said. “But my colleagues in Congress are more likely to be swayed by how important this new checkpoint is in intercepting drugs.”