Freeway Barriers Urged to Reduce Migrant Deaths : Safety: Border Patrol and CHP back plan for structures in medians to deter illegal migrants from using freeways as evasion routes. Others call barriers dangerous.

Immigration and highway patrol officials, seeking to reduce the escalating carnage of illegal immigrants who run across San Diego County freeways, lent their support Tuesday to erecting barriers along highway medians in the two principal problem areas.

Such barriers, authorities said after a morning meeting on the issue, would reduce foot traffic considerably on the high-speed roadways by making it impossible for most pedestrians to cross into opposing lanes of traffic. The structures would be placed in medians along the most hazardous freeway areas--Interstates 5 and 805 near the U.S.-Mexico border and I-5 near the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint north of Oceanside.

“Once the smugglers realized that the barriers were there, I don’t think they would put people in the medians,” said Ben Davidian, regional commissioner for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

However, the barrier idea remains in the preliminary stage, lacking funding and support from the California Department of Transportation, which is studying the suggestion.

Several migrant advocates contacted independently after Tuesday’s meeting maintained that such barriers could “trap” migrants on the roadways, possibly resulting in more injuries and deaths.

The difference in opinion points out the many obstacles faced by authorities and activists working to craft a consensus on how to resolve the escalating pedestrian-on-the-freeway problem, which has cost the lives of more than 100 pedestrians since 1987. The most recent fatality was an 80-year-old Mexican man who was struck and killed late Saturday as he attempted to cross I-5 near the San Clemente Border Patrol checkpoint.

The victim, Custodio Aguilar, who was en route to a son’s home in Palmdale, was the 28th illegal immigrant struck by a vehicle and killed on area freeways this year, officials said.

He, like the others, was attempting to avoid immigration agents by hiking around the checkpoint. In the border area, the converging freeways are directly in the line of many border-jumpers; in addition, many migrants seeking to avoid arrest or arrange rides to the north gravitate to the border-area freeways.

As officials discussed possible solutions, the U.S. Border Patrol announced Tuesday that it would reverse a recently decision and would return to the practice of generally not arresting suspected aliens along busy freeway medians and shoulders. Two weeks ago, patrol officials had announced that they would begin apprehending the many aliens who daily gather on border-area freeways.

That plan was quickly denounced by immigrant advocates, who feared that many immigrants would run from officers and into the traffic, thus increasing fatalities and injuries. Activists long have maintained that agents should not make arrests on the freeways. In February, a 45-year-old Mexican woman was struck and killed on I-5 north of the checkpoint after she ran from a U.S. Border Patrol officer who had yelled at her and others to stop, according to the county medical examiner’s report.

Ted Swofford, patrol spokesman in San Diego, said that the shift announced two weeks ago was “premature.” After discussions with immigration officials in Washington and California, Swofford said, authorities decided to keep the old practice.

“Our paramount concern is safety,” Swofford said.

On the barrier issue, representatives of the California Department of Transportation , who also participated in the Tuesday meeting, said that such structures were among a number of options being considered, but that no decision had been made. Caltrans would probably have to foot the bill, likely to be quite high, although price estimates were not available.

In order to be effective, the proposed barriers would have to be at least eight-feet high and would have to stretch several miles along freeways at the border and as many as 10 miles near the checkpoint.

“The median barrier idea is one that we’re going to take a real close look at,” said Steve Saville, a Caltrans spokesman in San Diego.

Also backing the barrier concept was Capt. Ron Phulps, with the California Highway Patrol in Oceanside. “What we want to do is make people believe that you can’t use the freeway,” Phulps said.

Tuesday’s meeting, held at the Border Patrol checkpoint north of Oceanside, was the latest in a series of multiagency informational sessions aimed at devising some strategies to deal with the thorny problem.

The effectiveness of median barriers was challenged by several immigrant advocates, who voiced fears that such structures could worsen the problem by leaving frightened migrants with no escape route--and perhaps prompting some to rush, panicked, into oncoming traffic.

“I think barriers could make matters worse,” said Roberto Martinez, who works with a Quaker social service group in San Diego. “To trap them there is not a solution at all.”

Martinez and Claudia Smith, general counsel in Oceanside for California Rural Legal Aid, which provides legal assistance to migrants, postulated that most pedestrians would simply walk around the barriers, thus simply moving the hazard to other stretches of freeway. “They’ll just go someplace else,” Smith said.

The activists noted that the pedestrians, reacting to strong lighting placed in freeways near the border, had shifted their positions to dimmer areas.

In seeking alternative solutions, immigrant advocates support a series of measures, including a reduction of the speed limit along freeways at the two problem areas. INS commissioner Davidian said he also supported reduced speed limits.

However, Capt. Phulps of the California Highway Patrol said that his agency is against reducing speed limits--a position that would seem to doom the idea, as his agency would have to enforce the change. A speed limit reduction could increase the possibility of traffic accidents on the freeways, Phulps said, as some motorists would likely adhere to the new limits while others would ignore it.

In recents months, Caltrans has embarked on a series of moves aimed at reducing the freeway bloodshed. Among other steps, the agency has improved lighting; installed signs alerting motorists and border-crossers of the hazards; reduced shrubbery that provides cover for migrants; and embarked on a public information campaign that includes the distribution of thousands of leaflets warning both migrants and motorists of the danger. Other alternatives being considered, Caltrans officials say, include the construction of freeways grooves or other devices that might increase awareness among motorists.

However, the number of deaths and injuries continue to mount, prompting calls for additional measures.

Meanwhile, Border Patrol officials say the are considering the use of additional flashing lights to warn motorists of the presence of the checkpoint along I-5. In addition, patrol officials plan to increase enforcement at the Aliso Creek rest areas along I-5 north of Oceanside, which has long been a major staging area for alien smugglers headed north with migrants.

Times staff writer Lucy Chabot contributed to this report.