I-5 Lanes Near Border Reopened

Four lanes of Interstate 5 in San Ysidro near the U.S.-Mexico border were reopened Thursday night after a partial eight-week closure that was designed to slow traffic so immigrants could pass across the lanes without harm.

Reducing eight lanes to four was designed to cut down on the number of people hit by cars on I-5. More than 100 people have been killed near the border since 1987.

A 14-year-old boy waiting to cross I-5 near the border was killed and his brother seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver last week. He was the second to die since the California Department of Transportation closed four lanes.

But last week, citing rising crime in the closed lanes, law enforcement officials asked that the lanes be reopened. Civic activists also were concerned that Caltrans was helping to provide a safe haven for illegal immigrants.

U.S. Border Patrol agents have a policy of not arresting immigrants who gather in the lanes.