Temecula Readies Lawsuit Over Border Patrol Chases : Immigration: City’s attempt to have policy revised could set a precedent. Also, Packard calls for a review.

The U.S. Border Patrol’s high-speed chase policy came under new pressure Wednesday as the city of Temecula prepared a lawsuit to force the immigration agency to change the policy and a congressman called for a House subcommittee to review Border Patrol chases, freeway checkpoints and other immigration issues.

Temecula officials will seek a temporary restraining order in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles forcing the agency to halt high-speed chases in the city until the pursuit policy is rewritten, City Atty. Scott Field said.

The City Council decided Tuesday night to sue in the wake of a crash June 2 in front of Temecula Valley High School that resulted in six deaths.

A Chevrolet Suburban carrying 12 illegal immigrants crashed into a sedan while fleeing the Border Patrol, killing the sedan’s driver and two teen-age passengers, then careened through the intersection and killed a brother and sister who were walking to school. One of the immigrants in the truck died Sunday.

The 16-year-old driver of the truck has been charged with murder, and another passenger has been charged with alien smuggling.

The crash occurred after Border Patrol agents spotted the stolen vehicle near the Interstate 15 immigration checkpoint south of Temecula and gave chase, although federal officials say the agents broke off the pursuit shortly before the collision. The checkpoint has been shut down indefinitely as the Border Patrol reviews the accident and its chase policy.

The city’s lawsuit will argue that the existing Border Patrol policy is unreasonable because it “doesn’t provide any guidance” to pursuing agents about when to cut off a chase, City Atty. Field said.

Field said he believes that such a lawsuit, pitting a municipality against the INS, is unprecedented. An INS official privately agreed, although the agency declined to comment.

“Cities have declared themselves sanctuaries, and some have passed resolutions precluding their law enforcement officials from cooperating with the Border Patrol, but this is the first time our attorneys are aware of that a city has gone to court seeking a restraining order to bar us from chases in their city,” said the official, who asked not to be identified.

The suit “certainly involves some interesting issues of whether a municipality can forestall the federal government in pursuing its mission,” the official said.

According to the eight-page Border Patrol pursuit policy, agents are required to call off a chase when the pursuing agent decides that continuing “would result in undue hazard to the general public or any other person” or if a supervisor orders it halted.

“A lot will depend on the judge,” Temecula Mayor Pat Birdsall said. “But we feel very strongly that, if we can get our foot in the door with this lawsuit, other cities will follow us.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) met in Washington on Wednesday with INS Commissioner Gene McNary, who has dispatched his director of internal investigations to look into the Temecula incident.

Packard’s district encompasses both the Temecula checkpoint and the busier, often controversial Interstate 5 checkpoint near San Clemente. Although historically a strong supporter of the INS, Packard has responded to the accident by questioning the safety of the checkpoints and demanding that McNary provide an in-depth explanation of their worth.

McNary supplied information Wednesday on arrests and drug seizures, Packard said. But the congressman said he still wants data on the number of high-speed chases the checkpoints have generated, how many chases have resulted in serious or fatal accidents and whether the agents and resources at the checkpoints could be better used at the border.

“I’m convinced that the INS is very concerned,” Packard said. “I think they know the status quo is not going to work. Certainly the commissioner is aware that he has an ally (Packard) who is deeply concerned.”

Packard also said he will ask the House Subcommittee on International Law, Immigration and Refugees to hold hearings on Border Patrol chase policies and the use of non-border checkpoints. The subcommittee is overseen by the House Judiciary Committee.

Packard said the hearings also should address lingering problems such as illegal immigration, Border Patrol staffing and inadequate federal reimbursement to local government agencies that are drained by concentrated populations of illegal immigrants.

“Since the Immigration Reform Act, we have not really seriously looked at the immigration service, if it’s doing its job,” Packard said. “There are still huge amounts of illegal crossings at our borders. There are serious problems before and after the checkpoints. The whole issue of reimbursement to schools, counties, cities, hospitals and law enforcement agencies affected by illegal immigration, that is still an issue that needs to be raised.”

The six deaths in Temecula might prompt overdue attention to some of the larger issues related to illegal immigration, Packard said. Except for representatives of border states such as California and Texas, Congress has ignored the problem, he said.

“For years we have tried to raise this issue to a level where our colleagues were concerned,” Packard said. “We were not successful. It’s tragic that it takes an incident like this to raise it to that level, but that’s what we are trying to do.”

Statistics provided to Packard by the INS on Wednesday show that the San Clemente and Temecula checkpoints account for about a fifth of the approximately half a million arrests the San Diego sector of the Border Patrol--the nation’s busiest--makes in a year.

The San Clemente station made 69,367 apprehensions in fiscal 1991 and 156 drug seizures worth $11,593,139. The smaller Temecula checkpoint made 23,230 arrests and 281 drug seizures worth $2,972,335, although major seizures this year have driven that figure to $21,497,413.

Commissioner McNary also met Wednesday with U.S. Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.), who told reporters afterward that he and McNary discussed Seymour’s suggestion that surplus U.S. military helicopters be given to the Border Patrol to assist vehicles on the ground during high-speed chases and reduce the danger of crashes.