Border Patrol’s I-15 Checkpoint Back in Service

The U.S. Border Patrol reopened a freeway immigration checkpoint near Temecula Thursday for the first time since a fatal crash killed six people in the city last week after a Border Patrol chase.

The checkpoint had been shut down since the June 2 accident, as residents and politicians criticized Border Patrol chase policies and questioned the safety of both the Interstate 15 checkpoint, where the chase began, and the Interstate 5 checkpoint near San Clemente.

Although tensions linger and Temecula leaders plan to sue the Border Patrol to prevent chases in their city, Border Patrol officials said they wanted to return to the normal business of enforcing immigration laws at a checkpoint they described as a vital “second perimeter” backing up the U.S.-Mexico border.

A Border Patrol spokesman said agents at the checkpoint will take pains to avoid chases, particularly chases that spill off the freeway into the streets of Temecula, although he said such pursuits “have not been expressly ruled out.”

“Supervisors in the field will exercise extreme caution,” spokesman Steve Kean said. “We don’t want to raise any fears.”

The decision was made by Gustavo de la Vina, chief of the San Diego sector of the Border Patrol, who on Thursday met for the first time since the accident with the Temecula city manager. Afterward, both sides said the hourlong meeting was cordial.

They said they discussed setting up direct radio contact so Border Patrol agents could advise Temecula police of high-speed chases entering the city. That arrangement already exists at the I-5 checkpoint near San Clemente and would resemble an agreement between the Temecula police and the California Highway Patrol, according to City Manager David Dixon.

“If we had had that kind of communication before, maybe we could have been of assistance last week,” Dixon said.

Dixon and De la Vina also talked about the Border Patrol’s review of its chase policy, which began in March before the Temecula crash. The agency is considering adding language that would spell out in further detail the kinds of areas and circumstances in which chases should be conducted, according to Dixon and Kean.

The current policy says agents should call off chases if an “undue hazard” exists. Dixon said he asked the Border Patrol to add a distinction between urban and rural areas.

Despite an agreement to hold another meeting next week, there was no change in the city’s plan to file a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order against Border Patrol chases in Temecula, Dixon said.

“I would hope they would resolve their policy soon so we don’t have to take any further legal action at all, so we can just withdraw it,” Dixon said. “I think they came in anxious to try to resolve the issues. I thought that was very healthy.”

Kean said it is up to the courts to decide on the merits of such a suit.

Kean said the Border Patrol is also looking at “alternative measures” to deter chases. He did not elaborate but said those measures might include barriers and gates of the type that have been considered for the San Clemente checkpoint if it is relocated to a planned new site on I-5 several miles to the south.

The Temecula checkpoint, which in the past has been open about 85% of the time, should be operating normally by the weekend, Kean said.

Dixon said he was unaware that the checkpoint had been shut down and had no comment about the decision to reopen it. He said the city would prefer to have no Border Patrol chases until the issues are resolved.