Temecula Crash Sparks Call for Changes by INS

The Border Patrol is considering changing its policy for high-speed chases to curtail dangerous pursuits by agents in densely populated areas such as Southern California, agency officials said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, two local congressmen demanded an immediate investigation of a fatal crash that has reignited debate over Border Patrol chases and questioned whether the Border Patrol’s “second front” of freeway checkpoints north of the border is worth keeping. In the accident Tuesday, a speeding Chevrolet Suburban fleeing immigration agents struck and killed four students and a parent in front of a high school in Temecula.

Hundreds of tearful students at Temecula Valley High School lighted candles and placed flowers at the accident scene Wednesday morning. The Temecula City Council called a special meeting for this evening on the fatal crash, which also injured the 12 illegal immigrants in the truck.

“This city has been devastated,” Assistant City Manager Mark Ochendusko said.

The angry reaction to the accident apparently gave added impetus to a review already going on of the Border Patrol’s sometimes controversial pursuit policy and tactics.

The agency’s policy generally resembles guidelines followed by other agencies around the region, according to law enforcement officials. But it differs in one aspect, officials said: other police agencies try to avoid high-speed chases of people who are not wanted for serious or violent crimes, such as suspected illegal immigrants.

“Within any agency, you have to ask, is this chase really worth it?” said CHP spokesman John Marinez, who refrained from commenting on the Tuesday incident. “The No. 1 concern is the safety of the public.”

The two congressmen who asked for an investigation of the pursuit, which began near the Interstate 15 immigration checkpoint near Temecula, sent a sternly worded letter to INS Commissioner Gene McNary questioning the safety and worth of non-border checkpoints along the freeways.

“It appears that the checkpoints have not proven successful,” said the letter from U.S. Reps. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) and Al McCandless (R-Riverside). “To the contrary, the incidence of high-speed chases originating at these checkpoints is alarming to us. We know of no one who believes any high-speed chase is worth the life of any individual.”

The congressmen asked McNary to provide a rationale for keeping the Temecula and San Clemente checkpoints in their locations more than 50 miles north of the international border, along with an analysis of the checkpoints’ success.

Packard, who long has supported the Border Patrol in its efforts to build an expanded checkpoint in Camp Pendleton, warned that there is no use in pursuing the expansion if the checkpoints themselves are dangerous and of questionable value.

“It is unconscionable to me that we would go ahead with this project if it poses a significant threat to the community,” Packard said.

INS officials could not be reached for comment on the letter, but maintained both before and after Tuesday’s accident that checkpoints are an invaluable “second front” against illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigators planned to decide late Wednesday whether to seek murder charges against the driver of the Suburban, a 16-year-old Mexican national and suspected smuggler of illegal immigrants whose name is being withheld. They also are considering charges of auto theft against two other passengers--Eddie Rodriguez, 22, and Celso Rodriguez, 35--who are also suspected smugglers.

The Suburban was first spotted early Tuesday by plainclothes INS agents staking out a known pickup spot for illegal immigrants in San Ysidro. The agents followed the vehicle more than 60 miles north to the Temecula checkpoint because no marked Border Patrol units were available until then, the agency reported. At that point, a marked car picked up the pursuit.

INS policy requires the use of marked units to stop fugitive vehicles.

According to witness accounts and the Border Patrol, agents tried to curtail the chase by slowing their marked sedan shortly before the accident at an intersection about a mile east of I-15, which occurred just as classes were beginning shortly after 7:30 a.m.

But the Suburban continued at speeds exceeding 70 m.p.h., running a red light at the corner of Margarita and Rancho Vista roads. It crashed into a car, tearing it in half and killing a local banker, his son and the son’s friend. The Suburban then veered out of control and jumped a curb in front of the high school, killing a brother and sister on their way into school and rolling onto its roof.

As speeding ambulances converged at the accident site, Border Patrol officials from around California coincidentally were sitting down at their Laguna Niguel regional headquarters to discuss possible changes in pursuit policy, officials said. The review began several months ago, said Border Patrol spokesman Steve Kean.

“They are taking a look at the increase in the alien apprehensions, the increase in the overall traffic and population, and the urbanization of the border,” Kean said.

Up to now, the Border Patrol has had a single nationwide policy. The Temecula incident may result in new restrictions on chases in areas such as the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector, which includes the border, a densely populated urban expanse and the freeway checkpoints, officials said.

INS spokesman Duke Austin said the agency is talking about a region-by-region policy.

“There’s a recognition that there are differences between the middle of Texas and downtown San Diego,” Austin said. “That has been in the past a topic of discussion, and I’m sure it will be a topic of discussion in the future.”

Temecula city officials have scheduled a meeting today with Border Patrol officials to discuss the incident and the checkpoint.

Temecula city officials also have contacted San Clemente police, who in past years have expressed concern about several serious accidents in that city after chases that originated at the I-5 checkpoint a few miles south of San Clemente.

Border Patrol pursuit policies, which call for agents to discontinue a chase if an undue hazard exists, generally mirror those followed by local law enforcement, according to San Clemente Police Chief Albert Ehlow and others familiar with the agency.

Some agencies have more stringent restrictions, however. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration prohibits most high-speed chases unless an agent’s life is at stake, according to Los Angeles spokesman Ralph Lochridge.

Several police officials said they have found the Border Patrol to be cautious and conscientious during high-speed chases. They pointed out that smugglers often show reckless disregard for safety, abandoning moving vehicles or forcing illegal immigrants to jump from cars driving down the freeway.

“People that transport illegal aliens are not concerned with the safety of the public,” CHP spokesman Marinez said. “I was once chasing a guy in a full-sized pickup truck, the vehicle is swerving and he’s trying to shove a female out the door. He’s figuring we’ll stop and take care of her. . . .People don’t know how often this occurs. These type of people are out on our freeways every day.”

On the other hand, police said they often choose not to pursue nonviolent suspects because their policies focus on chasing dangerous criminals.

“A shoplifting suspect flees, he’s panicking, driving like a lunatic,” said San Diego Police Lt. Bob Jones. “The officers constantly evaluate whether the seriousness of the offense outweighs the risk to the public safety if he gets away.”

In Temecula, Assistant City Manager Ochendusko said authorities are “very cautious” about pursuit and said citizens have been complaining since the accident about previous Border Patrol chases.

One such incident has led to a lawsuit that will be tried in a federal courtroom next month in Santa Ana. The Border Patrol will stand accused of causing the deaths of a 32-year-old Temecula woman and her unborn child in 1990.

The lawsuit, brought by Los Angeles attorney Raymond Johnson on behalf of Paul Stuart, claims that the Border Patrol acted callously in chasing a vehicle carrying illegal immigrants through southern Temecula.

Stuart’s wife, Babette, and her 5-month-old fetus were killed when their car was struck by the vehicle being pursued by the Border Patrol at the junction of Pala Road and California 79. The pursued vehicle began driving wildly during the chase--and that should have been enough, Johnson contends, for the Border Patrol to back off its pursuit.

“What’s going on in Temecula has to be stopped,” Johnson said Wednesday. “Ten years ago, Temecula was open range land, and high-speed chases through open land is one thing. But thousands of families have moved here since 1985, and that’s changed the situation. . . .It’s like shooting a bullet in a crowded shopping mall in order to stop a purse snatcher.”

Immigration officials say that, although they understand the anger and pain caused by the accident, the public outcry should be directed against reckless smugglers such as the driver who they say caused the five deaths in Temecula.

“The smugglers have to be held accountable,” Kean said. “They have to be responsible for the welfare of the public and of the people they are bringing into the country.”

After criminal charges are filed today, officials said, the illegal immigrants who are not charged will be turned over to the Border Patrol. Four of the latter remain hospitalized, one of them an unidentified 17-year-old in critical condition at Riverside General Hospital.

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