Illegal Aliens on Freeways to Be Taken Into Custody

In a major policy change, the U.S. Border Patrol and California Highway Patrol announced Thursday that they will begin apprehending undocumented aliens who gather on freeway medians, in a plan to reduce the number of deaths occurring when migrants dash across the highway and are struck by motorists.

Border Patrol and CHP officials said the new policy, which became effective Wednesday, was instituted because the old one sometimes encouraged hundreds of illegal aliens to loiter on freeway medians, knowing the Border Patrol would not try to arrest them there.

Border Patrol spokesman Ted Swofford said the previous policy prohibited agents from attempting to apprehend aliens on medians “for obvious safety reasons.”

“What we have been trying has not been working. People are still getting killed, and that is unacceptable,” Swofford said. “ . . . We will try to implement the new policy in a very cautious manner. We’re not putting a lot of pressure on them. We’re pulling over on the median well away from them, so they don’t panic and run out in front of traffic.”

However, Swofford said agents will pursue migrants who try to evade arrest.

“We’ll try to do it as safely as we possible can,” Swofford added.

According to figures released by the California Rural Legal Assistance, 83 illegal migrants have been killed on San Diego-area freeways within 5 miles of the border since 1987. An additional 33 have died during the same period near the Border Patrol checkpoint at San Onofre in North County when they were hit by cars traveling on Interstate 5.

On their trek north, illegal aliens frequently hide or wait on freeway medians until they are picked up by smugglers who transport them away from the border. Most of the migrants, especially those from the interior of Mexico, have never seen a freeway and are unable to gauge a car’s speed.

Deaths usually occur when they attempt to cross a busy freeway to get to the median. At San Onofre, migrants are frequently killed when they try to circumvent the INS checkpoint by jumping out of smugglers’ vehicles and running west--across eight lanes of traffic--to the beach. After walking north past the checkpoint, they then recross the freeway and are picked up by the smugglers to continue their northward journeys.

The California Department of Transportation has attempted to curb mounting freeway deaths by posting signs to warn motorists in areas where aliens congregate on the median. Lights have also been installed on freeway stretches where aliens are known to gather. However, those efforts have met with little success.

CHP Officer Jim Anderson said the CHP will assist the Border Patrol “only on a casual basis” and will not respond every time agents attempt to arrest migrants hiding on the median.

“If an officer can safely approach them on the median, we will detain them and hand them over to the Border Patrol,” Anderson said.

The new policy will be effective only in the San Diego area and not at San Onofre, Anderson said.

Migrant rights activists immediately attacked the new policy.

“It’s a totally irresponsible and reckless policy,” said Roberto Martinez of the American Friends Service Committee, a migrants rights group. “They’re gathering at the median to get away from the Border Patrol. When the Border Patrol shows its presence, they will start dashing in and out of the freeway again.

“The Border Patrol is jeopardizing people’s lives just to apprehend them. . . . Renewing this policy is like taking one step forward and two steps back,” Martinez added.

Despite the criticism, CHP and Border Patrol officials said they will go ahead with the apprehensions.

“We’ve had 80-some people killed over the past few years. Do you just sit there and say that’s an acceptable toll?” asked the CHP’s Anderson. “This is almost our last alternative. We’ve tried posting signs, installing freeway lights and handing out leaflets at the border. Nothing has worked in the past.”

According to Anderson, the CHP and Border Patrol have apprehended up to 300 aliens at one time on a freeway median. Some CHP cars have been pelted by rocks thrown by aliens loitering on the medians, he added.

Swofford complained that critics of the policy would complain regardless of what the Border Patrol did.

“If we can get people used to the idea that they cannot go out on the freeway, these killings will stop,” Swofford said.

Anderson said CHP officers will also be enforcing the law that prohibits pedestrians on the freeway.

“Do they want to just let these people get run over and ignore the fact that they’re also breaking the law?” Anderson asked. “They’re entering the country illegally and breaking the law against pedestrians on the freeway.”

Martinez countered that CHP officers are in effect going to be enforcing U.S. immigration laws by getting involved in the apprehensions. “This is totally out of their jurisdiction. They are only going to exacerbate the problem because it will put more officers chasing people on the freeway,” Martinez said. He said the change in policy is premature and accused the CHP and Border Patrol of acting unilaterally when both agencies are members of an advisory committee formed by Assemblyman Steve Peace (D-Chula Vista) to find a solution to the freeway deaths.

“They completely ignored what we’re trying to do in the committee,” Martinez said. “It’s very upsetting. We’ve been meeting for about six months, and they go on and implement this policy on their own.”

In a related matter, Martinez and California Rural Legal Assistance attorneys wrote a letter to INS Commissioner Gene McNary, asking him to review Border Patrol policy on chasing aliens on freeways.