Temecula to Try Again on Border Patrol Suit

Refusing to cry uncle, the Temecula City Council has told its city attorney to prepare yet another lawsuit against the Border Patrol, trying again to force the agency to rewrite its high-speed pursuit policy.

The city’s initial lawsuit was rejected out of hand last week by a U.S. District Court judge in Santa Ana, who said she lacked the jurisdiction to hear the matter and that, even if she did, the federal government was immune to the city’s legal action.

The lawsuit was prompted by the June 2 chase by Border Patrol agents of a stolen Chevrolet Suburban into Temecula that left five residents and an illegal immigrant dead after the Suburban ran a red light and collided with a car in front of Temecula Valley High School.

The city claims that the Border Patrol’s pursuit policy is too ambiguous and leaves too many judgment calls in the hands of pursuing agents--discretion that was lacking in that chase, the city says. Officials of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Border Patrol’s parent agency, later said it found no fault with the agents’ handling of the pursuit because it conformed with policy.

The Temecula City Council on Tuesday night instructed City Atty. Scott Field to continue researching the city’s legal options and to prepare yet another lawsuit against the INS.

“We’re trying to get them to listen to us, and this is the only way we know,” Temecula Mayor Pat Birdsall said.

Field was told to return to the council July 14 with his work, for final go-ahead to file the suit.

“There’s absolutely no question” that the city wants to continue pressing the issue, City Manager David Dixon said. “We are not attacking the INS and its national policies. All that we want cured are things that relate to the safety of the people and property in Temecula. We want them to address their standard operating procedures.”

Despite the court’s wholesale rejection of the city’s first suit, Dixon said the city feels committed to try again.

“We think we have another angle we can pursue. We can’t disclose what it is, but Scott feels there are other issues and arguments we can raise,” he said.

INS spokeswoman Virginia Kice said, “We can’t comment on legal documents that are not yet filed or speculate on what may or may not happen.”

Dixon said he hopes that even before a second lawsuit is filed, the INS and its Border Patrol will have completed their own review of the pursuit policy--a review that, the INS said, was under way even before the June 2 crash.

“If they would come out with an urban (pursuit) policy, I think we will have accomplished a great deal,” the city manager said. “We want to see them move on this issue. They can be heroes.”

Among the city’s complaints is that the Border Patrol’s policy does not specifically instruct agents to communicate with the local law enforcement agency during a pursuit. Temecula officials say that had its police officers known of the pursuit, they might have been able to head off the fleeing vehicle, stop it themselves or at least block intersections ahead of the chase.

The Suburban, carrying 12 illegal immigrants, sheared in half a sedan and killed its three occupants--a father, his son and a schoolmate of the son--then overturned, killing a brother and sister walking on a sidewalk toward the high school. Later, one of the immigrants died of his injuries.

The driver of the Surburban has been charged with murder, and another of the 12 occupants was charged with alien smuggling.

On Sunday at Temecula Valley High School, a community fund-raiser picnic will be held to help defray funeral costs incurred by the three families local.

The picnic, called “Families Helping Families,” will run from 1 to 4 p.m. and feature games, raffles, live entertainment, food and an auction, said one of the organizers, Carol Gamboni. The event is co-sponsored by the Temecula Rotary Club and the Rancho-Temecula-Murrieta Board of Realtors.

“We have no idea how much money we’ll make, but we’d love to raise $10,000,” Gamboni said.

One of the families had no money to cover funeral expenses, she said, and the funeral home made arrangements only after being assured that the community would somehow make good on the debt.