ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : A Bit of Medical Advice

The respected head of the trauma unit of Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, which frequently treats injured illegal immigrants, is making some sense about those controversial U.S. Border Patrol chases in the neighborhood of the San Onofre border checkpoint.

After three illegal immigrants were delivered to his doorstep by ambulance over the weekend--with injuries sustained from falling on rocks near the checkpoint--Dr. Thomas Shaver said immigration officers either should stop chasing illegals and putting them at risk of serious injury or take some financial responsibility for the injured.

The message is yet another reminder of the dubious value of freeway checkpoints miles from the border. As it turned out, the three, who were unaccompanied by federal agents when they arrived, eventually walked free from the hospital after treatment. There’s no small measure of irony there, given the purpose of having a checkpoint at all.

The Border Patrol denies the assertion of the three men that they were being chased when they fell in the darkness and were injured, one of them suffering a skull fracture. But the larger point applies, chase or no chase in that particular incident. Who can deny that the three, one way or another, were dodging the checkpoint, a source of safety concern for years? Previous chases have resulted in serious accidents, panicky motorists and death for pedestrians taking enormous risks.

Last year, the Border Patrol began to grapple with the problem when it set up belated guidelines for vehicular chases. But now a front-lines doctor is weighing in with more cause for concern about any kind of chase, in a car or on foot. This warning adds to the already strong case that the place to stop illegal immigration is at the border, not miles inland in heavily populated and traveled areas of Southern California.