Chase Reignites Call for New Checkpoint : Immigration: A fleeing pickup carrying suspected illegal aliens causes a five-injury crash at a San Clemente intersection.

Local politicians, angered by a Border Patrol chase that resulted in a two-vehicle collision on a busy commercial street Tuesday, renewed their call for relocation of the controversial north San Diego County immigration checkpoint.

Five people suffered mostly minor injuries when a pickup carrying suspected illegal aliens bolted from the checkpoint and led authorities on a 10-minute chase that ended when the truck rammed a car driven by a San Juan Capistrano mother taking her 7-year-old son to school.

“I don’t think there’s any question about the need for a new checkpoint,” said Mike Eggers, a Dana Point city councilman and chief Orange County aide to U.S. Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), who has sponsored a bill to build a checkpoint five miles south of the current one. “It’s tragic you have to have these kinds of incidents to bring this issue to the forefront.”

San Clemente officials also voiced frustration over repeated Border Patrol chases on city streets or the San Diego Freeway, which runs up the spine of the rolling beach community.

“I said all along that this was a time bomb” waiting to explode, Councilman Brian J. Rice said. “I got my phone ringing off the hook. This has always been my greatest fear. There is no justification for the (chase).”

But immigration officials defended the manner in which the chase was carried out, saying Border Patrol agents and local police responded with caution and attempted not to create a hazard.

Ted Swofford, an Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman, said there is little that checkpoint officers, who try to wave vehicles to a stop, can do to curb the rising number of cars that race away.

Swofford said that in the past year the INS has been involved in 187 chases of suspected illegal aliens who have fled during routine stops at the San Clemente checkpoint. Four or five of those chases have resulted in injuries, none of them fatal, he said.

“It is very problematic,” Swofford said. “It has always occurred to some degree. But it seems to be getting worse.”

Authorities said the chase unfolded about 8:20 a.m. Tuesday morning when a stolen 1984 Isuzu pickup truck driven by Cisco I. Hernandez, 18, a Mexican national, ignored an order to stop at the manned checkpoint, located on Interstate 5 about five miles south of San Clemente.

After leading authorities up the freeway and onto San Clemente streets, the truck collided with a car driven by Linda Delaine Chaffee, 42, at the intersection of El Camino Real and Avenida de la Grulla in northern San Clemente.

Authorities said the truck was headed north on El Camino Real when it pulled around a line of cars and headed up the southbound lane. The truck smashed into the driver’s side of Chaffee’s car as she made a left turn out of the northbound lane.

Chaffee suffered an eye injury and was treated at Samaritan Medical Center-San Clemente and released. She was taking her son, Drew, to nearby Las Palmas Elementary School when the accident occurred. The boy and his younger brother, who was also in the car, were not injured, authorities said.

Hernandez also escaped injury, but four occupants of the truck, all of them believed to be illegal immigrants, were treated for minor injuries at the hospital. They were identified only as two men, a woman and a 2-year-old girl.

Authorities said the truck had been stolen in Chula Vista, near San Diego. Hernandez faces federal charges of fleeing from a Border Patrol officer and entering the country illegally, Swofford said. He also faces state charges of reckless driving and auto theft, San Clemente Police Sgt. Richard Downing said.

Chaffee’s husband joined local officials in questioning the effectiveness of the checkpoint. He also criticized the INS for conducting a chase during the morning, when hundreds of children are walking to school.

“I can’t believe the irresponsibility of the INS,” said David Chaffee, a tax and environmental attorney for Orange County. “To jeopardize the lives of my family and their officers is just ridiculous.

“Is it really worth it to apprehend these, quote, ‘dangerous criminals’ to jeopardize . . . children?”

But immigration officials said David Chaffee was aiming his blame in the wrong direction.

“I understand (Chaffee’s) upset and frustrated,” Swofford said. “But we are not the ones who stole a truck, ran red lights and drove in a reckless manner to get away. The blame is misdirected.”

San Clemente Mayor Candace Haggard, who on Monday mailed a letter to various legislators urging them not to cut funding for a new checkpoint during budget deliberations, agreed that the pursuit should not have taken place on city streets.

“I just feel sick for the poor innocent victims, and quite frankly I feel bad for the INS agents,” Haggard said. Although she opposes Border Patrol chases in the city, Haggard said the agents were “just doing their job.”

Efforts to build a $30-million checkpoint 5 miles south of the current site were prompted by a Dec. 21, 1986, crash in downtown San Clemente in which a carload of suspected illegal immigrants was injured.

The INS has designed a 16-lane checkpoint that authorities contend would make it virtually impossible for those passing through to bolt from agents. Correspondent Frank Messina also contributed to this story.

Border Patrol Chase Pickup filled with suspected illegals collides with San Juan Capistrano woman’s car. Chase started at Border Patrol checkpoint.