INS Seeks First Funds for New I-5 Checkpoint

U. S. immigration officials are seeking $10 million to finance the first-phase construction of a long-projected Border Patrol checkpoint along Interstate 5 in North County.

The funding request, included last week as part of the 1991 budget proposal of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, brings the proposal for the new, $30-million inspection facility one step closer to reality.

The $10 million is only a partial request, but, even so, approval is far from guaranteed. Officials also caution that, if the first-phase is funded, it will not not be built and operational for several years.

The $10 million is earmarked for planning, design and initial construction costs associated with the projected 16-lane checkpoint. The facility would replace the existing three-lane checkpoint on I-5 near the boundary dividing San Diego and Orange counties, in the northwest corner of Camp Pendleton.

The plan for the new facility was unveiled in August, 1986. Since then, funding has been hard to come by in a time of growing federal fiscal austerity.

Officials say the existing checkpoint is inadequate, resulting in cursory inspections and huge traffic backups that have long angered motorists traveling along the principal north-south route in Southern California.

Compounding problems are Border Patrol manpower shortages that have prompted shutdowns of the facility. In San Clemente, authorities have also complained about a number of chases that emanated from the checkpoint and ended up on city streets.

The checkpoint is the busiest of the more than a dozen on the major roads leading from the almost-2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S. interior. The facilities are considered a key deterrent to unauthorized immigration.

Although principally aimed at undocumented border crossers, the checkpoints have also been the site of ever greater seizures of illegal drugs--a fact that has spurred legislators seeking money for the I-5 facility to emphasize its drug role. That is a relatively more eye-catching function than keeping out foreigners lacking residence papers.

“The whole spotlight on illegal drugs lately . . . has to help us,” said Michael Eggers, chief of staff in Orange County for Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside). “This is not just an illegal-alien checkpoint. They find everything from stolen cars to drugs to firearms.”

During peak hours, more than 5,000 vehicles per hour pass through the Border Patrol checkpoint near San Clemente, officials say.

Agents posted there arrested more than 150 suspected illegal immigrants each day during fiscal 1989, according to government figures. Officers also made a total of 66 major drug seizures, confiscating narcotics whose estimated street value was $17.2 million, authorities said.

Built in 1971 to accommodate 30 agents and staff, the facility is now home to 133 agents, a Packard aide said.

Before the checkpoint plan advances, an array of congressional committees must approve the $10 million and other details of the INS’ proposed $900-million budget plan. Final approval of the budget is not expected until the fall, following a lengthy process of hearings, bargaining sessions and other oversight reviews. Thus, initial construction probably could not begin until sometime in 1991.

Meanwhile, assuming that the $10 million becomes available, the INS will have to seek an additional $20 million in to complete construction. The new facility is not expected to be operational until at least sometime in 1992, assuming the money becomes available--a major assumption, considering the competition for federal dollars.

“I don’t think anyone objects to it (the checkpoint) on its merit,” said one congressional staffer in Washington who is familiar with the funding process. “It’ll just come down to a question of how much funding authority we’re allowed, and how it rates in priority with other things.”

The new checkpoint is expected to be built near the Las Pulgas Road exit off the northbound lanes of I-5, about 5 miles south of the existing checkpoint. Unlike the existing checkpoint, which follows the path of the highway, the new configuration would require that motorists divert somewhat, fanning out into 16 inspection lanes.

In constructing the new checkpoint, authorities have said they plan to use about 15 acres now owned by the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton. Marine officials have voiced no objections to donating the property.