CHP to Halt Immigrants on Medians : Border: Officers will remove pedestrians on freeways, where 52 have been killed since 1989. Officials say goal is to take people to safety, not to assist the INS.

Illegal immigrants heading north from the border on the Interstate 5 and 805 medians will be rounded up on a regular basis and removed from the freeway by the California Highway Patrol, agency officials said Wednesday.

CHP Capt. Mike Brown said that beginning next week, special enforcement units will be available around the clock to slow traffic in both directions and clear the highway of pedestrians. The move is the latest in a series of attempts to stop immigrants from darting across traffic lanes from the center median, where they are safe from U.S. Border Patrol pursuits.

The Border Patrol does not chase suspected illegal immigrants once they get on the freeway for fear they will run into traffic. But the roadway is far from safe: Since 1989, 52 pedestrians have been killed in the area directly north of the border and 65 have been injured, according to the CHP. The California Department of Transportation estimates that 350 men, women and children cross the freeway nightly in that area.

CHP Lt. Joe Garrison said that walking on the freeway is a violation of state law and that officers will have the option of warning pedestrians, citing them or detaining them.

Warning signs, pamphlets and public service announcements on both sides of the border have attempted to educate pedestrians about freeway dangers. Caltrans plans to begin construction in November of an eight-foot chain-link fence that will extend from the border for four miles along the median to discourage crossings.

The $922,000 fence will make it easier for CHP officers to round up pedestrians, CHP and Caltrans officials said. “We realize that the fence won’t work without the law enforcement aspect,” Caltrans spokesman Kyle Nelson said.

CHP officials stressed that the goal of the program is only to take pedestrians to safety, not to assist the Border Patrol with the apprehension of illegal immigrants. But some worry the program could cause immigrants to panic and run into traffic.

Enrique Loeza Tovar, Mexico’s consul in San Diego, met with Brown last week. “He was concerned that this new policy might cause more accidents,” Vice Consul Marcela Merino said. “To detain them in the highway, that could startle them and cause them to run.”