Lack of Money Killed Coalition That Monitored Safety Issues

The mood was somber during that summer afternoon in 1990 as a human rights activist in Santa Ana solemnly read the names of the dozens of pedestrians who had been killed near the Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 5.

It was a grim reminder of the task at hand. A dozen members of the Orange County Coalition for Immigrant Rights & Responsibilities had just pledged to join forces with human rights activists in San Diego to end the carnage on the California highways leading out of Mexico.

But ultimately it was not a lack of compassion but a lack of money that forced the 4-year-old coalition to disband at the end of last year, Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, said Friday in the wake of three more pedestrian deaths near the checkpoint south of San Clemente.

The coalition, which worked on numerous issues including the concern over the checkpoint, was sponsored by the Human Relations Commission and United Way and initially funded by a private foundation, Kennedy said. But during its final two years, it operated with about $100,000 from a state grants program that was discontinued when state budget cuts were imposed.

“There’s no full-time staff support to it anymore,” Kennedy said of the coalition that had doggedly watched the debate over the checkpoint.

Alarmed by the rising number of illegal immigrants being killed by motorists on the freeway, the Orange County activists began in 1990 to press government agencies to find a solution to the problem.

The discussion resulted in the installation of flashing lights and large traffic signs warning motorists to slow down and watch for pedestrians crossing the freeway. Through the coalition, Catholic churches participated in a public education campaign to let immigrants know of the dangers of California freeways.

The group also joined the state Department of Transportation in successfully objecting to a Border Patrol proposal that a 10-foot fence along the freeway median be erected to keep immigrants from trying to cross the freeway as they flee from pursuing law enforcement officials. The fence would only increase the danger, the activists argued.

In recent months, the issue had died down. Coalition members said Friday that short of closing the checkpoint, there was not much more they could do to increase the safety.

“We were hoping that those remedies would have an effect in reducing the number of deaths,” said Richard L. Spix, an attorney for Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, an immigrant rights group. “But people are continuing to die on that road.”

The three people killed Thursday and Friday were the year’s first near the checkpoint. Two people were killed in all of last year.

Amin David, president of Los Amigos of Orange County, said the coalition members felt that no matter how many barriers were erected, people would still find their way around them and the resources would be better spent at the border.

Based on a coalition recommendation, the Human Relations Commission decided not to comment on plans by Immigration and Naturalization Service to build a $30-million, 16-lane checkpoint at Horno Canyon, 2.2 miles south of the present checkpoint.

Verne Jervis, an INS spokesman in Washington, said Friday that the project is undergoing environmental studies and that the project will not be completed until 1997 at the earliest.

“It’s not a fast track, but it is on track,” Jervis said of the new checkpoint.

Times staff writer Robert W. Stewart contributed to this report.