Freeway Roundup

It happened again. Recently, while I was returning to San Diego, southbound on Interstate 5, my children and I watched in horror as Mexican nationals trying to escape U.S. Border Patrol agents attempted to cross the freeway.

Freeway traffic stopped and started as these people successfully crossed to possible freedom. Only this time, we saw Border Patrol agents actually chasing these people onto the freeway to corner them against the traffic.

We didn’t have a video camera, but what we saw needs to be reported.

The signs put up by Caltrans alert drivers to the possibility of people crossing, but how does a driver traveling 55 m.p.h. slow down to look for people without being hit by another car?

Perhaps, awareness needs to be raised with the Border Patrol and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. These people are poor, homeless and looking for a small piece of freedom.

They do not deserve to be chased to their death.

An acquaintance of mine is still undergoing therapy six months after killing a Mexican national who was crossing the freeway. Not only has his family been forced to deal with the tragedy of a man’s death on their windshield, but police nearly filed manslaughter charges.

My intent is not to initiate an investigation of those officers we witnessed that day.

But, if more people who witness what I did on Sunday afternoon speak up, perhaps fewer people will die. And the Border Patrol will use safer tactics to capture and return these people to Mexico-- alive.

BOB GUZMAN, Corona del Mar