I-8 Inspection Is Challenged

Nearly a year ago, Alfredo Vargas Gonzalez was stopped by Border Patrol agents at a temporary immigration checkpoint on Interstate 8 east of San Diego, near Ocotillo. After a search found heroin in the trunk of his car, he was arrested.

Charged with smuggling drugs, Vargas is due this week to go to trial in federal court in San Diego. The case presents one clear issue:

If Border Patrol checkpoints are supposed to stop the flow of illegal immigration, and that flow is from south to north, does the agency need a checkpoint on the major east-west highway from El Centro to San Diego?

Prosecutors and Border Patrol officials said yes, contending the Ocotillo checkpoint is essential to discourage migrant traffic from Calexico en route to Los Angeles through San Diego. Defense lawyers said no, claiming that the checkpoints or patrols already blanketing six north-south highways in Southern California are more than enough.

“I suppose we could say it’s OK to put up a checkpoint every 10 miles,” said Vargas’ defense lawyer, San Diego attorney Judy Clarke. “But is that the kind of country we want to live in?

“I worry that we really are over the edge on this and most people say, shoot, what’s the problem,” Clarke added.

Johnny Williams, the chief patrol agent at the Border Patrol’s El Centro office, said it’s his perception--and that of the majority of motorists--that there’s no problem.

“Although (I-8) does run east-west, there are roads off of it that run north and go into the interior of the state,” Williams said. “And we hear more from the citizens that they’re glad we’re on the job, a lot more than we hear from people complaining about a brief delay in their trip.”

The U.S. Supreme Court legitimized the Border Patrol checkpoints in 1976, when it gave its blessing to the San Clemente station and laid out simple rules for other sites.

The checkpoints have to be well marked, so that innocent motorists will not be surprised or frightened by a police roadblock. And, the court said, agents can make only brief stops before waving a driver on or opting for a closer look.

The Border Patrol recognized the court’s invitation. There are now permanent checkpoints in San Diego County on I-5 at San Onofre, on I-15 north of Fallbrook and on California 79 near the hamlet of Oak Grove. Three more fixed checkpoints mark north-south routes in Imperial County.

In addition, about a dozen times a year for three or four days at a time, the Border Patrol staffs the Ocotillo checkpoint. “We try on purpose to do it at very unscheduled intervals, to play with the smugglers’ minds,” said Alan Gordon, assistant chief in El Centro.

The Border Patrol always sets up the stop at the top of a rise some 3 miles from the border and 25 miles west of Calexico.

Because of its location, according to court papers filed by David P. Bennett, a supervising agent, the stop serves to nab migrants who connect with rides west on Interstate 8 after arriving at the freeway on foot from the border near Calexico.

From Jan. 1 through the middle of last week, agents at the I-8 checkpoint had snared 1,228 undocumented migrants, Gordon said. The stop also led to one cocaine bust and 18 marijuana seizures, including three last week alone, he said.

Vargas was arrested last Jan. 31. In court papers, agents said they had been tipped that day to look out for a blue sedan being driven west on I-8 by a Mexican male.

About 5:15 p.m., a late-model blue auto approached the checkpoint. Agent Jose M. Zamarripa asked the driver about his citizenship. The driver presented a resident alien card issued to Alfredo Vargas Gonzalez, the court papers said.

Prosecutors allege Vargas then gave Zamarripa permission to look into the trunk. Defense lawyer Clarke said Vargas was asked where he was coming from and going to--and then was directed to an inspection site a few yards away.

According to prosecutors, Agent Mario Hernandez noticed that Vargas “looked nervous and was constantly licking his lips.” Hernandez opened the trunk and found a black plastic bag stuffed into the left-side panel of the trunk containing two packages of heroin, prosecutors said.

Vargas has remained in custody since at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown San Diego on $100,000 bail. If convicted, he could draw up to 40 years in prison.

It’s possible a plea bargain might settle the case without a trial, Clarke and Assistant U.S. Atty. Alberto A. Arevalo said late last week. Even if it does, Clarke said, the issue remains unsettled.

“Maybe we get immune to the checkpoints, living in Southern California,” Clarke said. “Maybe that’s why law enforcement can get away with an increasing number of checkpoints. But do we really need them?”