Temecula Mayor Takes INS Case to D.C. : High-Speed Chases: Birdsall says Border Patrol must shed its ‘Old West posse mentality’ to ensure the safety of residents.

Temecula Mayor Pat Birdsall will tell a congressional subcommittee today in Washington that revisions in the U.S. Border Patrol’s high-speed pursuit policy fall short of ensuring the safety of her community.

“We want to thank the Immigration and Naturalization Service for taking a step forward in revising its chase policy, but there still are some questions and problems,” Birdsall said in a telephone interview.

If the INS doesn’t shed its “Old West posse mentality,” Birdsall said, “the lives of innocent citizens will continue to be sacrificed,” as happened June 2 when six persons were killed after a Border Patrol chase through Temecula. Five of those killed had nothing to do with the chase.

The amended pursuit policy, announced last Friday by the INS, still lacks specific guidelines for agents in chasing suspects through urban neighborhoods such as her growing city in southern Riverside County, Birdsall said.

Furthermore, she said, she wants the INS to explain why it has an immigration checkpoint where it does, just south of Temecula on Interstate 15 at the San Diego-Riverside County line. That checkpoint can be sidestepped easily by smugglers who often detour along a side road that virtually funnels them into Temecula, often with Border Patrol agents in hot pursuit.

The June 2 chase led to a crash in front of Temecula Valley High School that killed four teen-age students, a local banker and an undocumented immigrant.

The accident enraged Temecula officials, who say Border Patrol agents too often chase suspected illegal immigrants through their community with little regard for reason or safety. The Border Patrol chase policy is too ambiguous and leaves too much discretion in the hands of the pursuing agents, city officials and residents have complained.

Birdsall will make her remarks today to the House subcommittee on information, justice and agriculture. Its ranking Republican is Rep. Al McCandless of La Quinta, whose district includes Temecula and who, along with Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside), has called for hearings examining Border Patrol policies.

Temecula “fully supports the mission of the INS to halt illegal immigration,” according to an advance copy of Birdsall’s remarks to the panel. “In fact, the city endorses any proposal to strengthen INS efforts to turn back the tide of illegal immigration, particularly at the California-Mexico border.”

But the current chase policy, Birdsall says, “vests unfettered discretion in individual INS agents” and “is wholly inadequate to protect the lives and safety of the citizens . . . as is evidenced by the appalling number of fatalities and serious injuries caused by crashes resulting from INS high-speed pursuits.”

She said she welcomes last week’s revisions--which the INS said were under study even before the June 2 crash. Those changes prohibit agents from embarking on high-speed pursuits unless four specific safety criteria are met, thereby ensuring, according to the INS, that the “immediate danger” of the chase is no greater than the “potential danger” to the public should suspects remain at large.

Under the revised guidelines, agents cannot start high-speed chases unless the suspects are seeking to avoid arrest by speeding, refuse to stop at officers’ commands, present a danger to human life or safety, and the pursuing officers are under the command of a supervisor who will monitor the chase and decide whether to allow it or call it off, as circumstances warrant.

Once the chase is under way, the Border Patrol must notify the local law enforcement agency.

Despite the revisions, Birdsall complains, the Border Patrol’s chase policy remains inadequate.

“For example, the modified policy fails to consider the circumstances of the chase, such as time of day, nearby residential and school zones, and the like. The modified policy fails to distinguish between rural and urban areas. Thus, the policy fails to distinguish between an 80 m.p.h. pursuit along an open, sparsely populated rural highway and an 80 m.p.h. pursuit along narrow, heavily traveled residential streets,” according to her statement to the committee.

“Most importantly, while the modified policy claims to consider the risk the suspect poses to the populace, it fails to recognize that an immigration violation alone can never justify the risk high-speed pursuits present to the public,” her statement reads.

An INS spokesman said additional details of the new pursuit policy will be fleshed out with implementing and operating instructions that are still to be developed. But the spokesman declined further reaction to Birdsall’s remarks, deferring to INS officials who also will testify at today’s hearing.