INS Approves Checkpoint Site South of San Clemente : Immigration: The Border Patrol agrees to substitute a Horno Canyon location, 2.2 miles from existing stop, for a Las Pulgas Road facility opposed by Camp Pendleton.

Federal immigration officials have agreed to a compromise location for their proposed new Border Patrol checkpoint south of San Clemente, according to a letter released Friday.

The new location at Horno Canyon was accepted after Camp Pendleton Marine Corps officials expressed concern about the first site chosen for the $30-million, 16-lane checkpoint--Interstate 5 at Las Pulgas Road. Horno Canyon is 2.2 miles south of the present checkpoint, between it and Las Pulgas.

A checkpoint at Las Pulgas would interfere with aircraft and ground training, base officials told the Immigration and Naturalization Service this summer. They suggested Horno Canyon instead.

A letter this week from James A. Kennedy, assistant INS commissioner, agreed to the Horno Canyon site.

“From our point of view, Horno Canyon is just as good as the Las Pulgas Road site, if not better,” said Richard Kenney, a public affairs specialist for the INS in Washington. “We told them we’ve got no problems and will now wait for their response.”

Camp Pendleton officials said Friday that they had not yet received the INS letter but that the project seemed to be on target.

“Barring any new conditions or changes to the proposal, it appears that INS and Camp Pendleton are on the right track to making a new and more convenient border stop a reality,” said Lt. Kevin Bentley, a public affairs officer for the base.

The freeway cuts northward through the western reaches of the sprawling camp, where 36,000 Marines are stationed. Construction was scheduled before the conflict to begin in 1993, and officials are still using that date.

The INS has been eager to replace the 23-year-old site near San Onofre with a new and expanded facility, partly because of criticism by San Clemente city officials that car chases originating at the checkpoint endanger city residents when drivers exit the freeway and try to elude pursuers on city streets.

The new checkpoint will feature 16 lanes and examining booths such as those used at the San Ysidro border checkpoint, INS officials said.

“Apparently, drivers will be coming to a full stop,” Bentley said. “That should take care of the concerns they have in San Clemente.”

The Horno Canyon site is 2.7 miles north of Las Pulgas Road, about a mile north of a sweeping S-shaped curve where the northbound freeway lanes bank east and then northward, officials say.

The corps has said the Las Pulgas Road site is near an important underpass used by combat vehicles to move to and from beaches where amphibious landings are often practiced.

Officials have also said that locating the 20,000-square-foot inspection facility at Las Pulgas would interfere with a Caltrans bicycle path along Old Highway 101 running parallel to the freeway, forcing the path onto training areas on the base.

For years, the checkpoint has been a second defense against illegal immigrants headed north. Border Patrol officials say more than 69,000 illegal immigrants were arrested at the San Onofre checkpoint during the 1991 federal fiscal year that ended this month.