U.S. Weighing Controversial Border Crossing Fee, Reno Says : Checkpoints: In Beverly Hills speech, she unveils program to close ‘revolving door for illegal immigrants.’

U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno announced Saturday that a controversial proposal to impose fees for crossing the Mexican border is under serious consideration by the Justice Department.

Reno’s comments came during a Beverly Hills address in which she unveiled a federal program designed to close California’s “revolving door for illegal immigrants.”

The program, dubbed Operation Gatekeeper, will:

* Use hundreds of new and redeployed federal officers to patrol the Mexican border--a move that will result in at least temporary closure of a busy inland immigration checkpoint at San Clemente.

* Institute an automated fingerprinting system to catch criminal immigrants and track habitual illegal immigrants.

* Increase fencing and lighting at the San Diego border.

“The days when the border served as a revolving door for illegal immigrants are over,” Reno told a receptive Town Hall audience at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

She also said Operation Gatekeeper includes plans to send federal funds to California to help cover the costs of incarcerating criminal illegal immigrants. But those funds were already called for under the new federal crime bill.

Perhaps the most controversial element of Reno’s speech involved something not included in Operation Gatekeeper--the proposal to impose border crossing fees.

Although it would take an act of Congress to implement such fees, Reno stated:

“We are seriously considering implementing a . . . crossing fee similar to fees already collected at all airports.

“Later this month, the Commission on Immigration Reform . . . plans to recommend the initiation of such a fee,” she added.

Funds from the fees, Reno said, would be used to patrol the border and for expenses connected with legal crossings.

Such fees--$1 per crossing is often recommended--have been the subject of heated debate for more than a decade.

Critics maintain that such a border tariff could actually increase illegal entries by people who can’t afford to pay. It has also been suggested that immigration officials would be too busy exchanging dollars for pesos to concentrate on more important duties.

Instituting such a fee could also require delicate negotiations with Mexico, critics say.

Nevertheless, border fees are attractive to Republican and Democratic members of Congress, who are seeking new sources of income to meet border-related costs.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) proposed such a fee last year and rejected criticism as “tired bureaucratic responses.”

It has been estimated that a crossing charge of $1 would raise about $400 million a year, said Doris Meissner, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, who accompanied Reno in Los Angeles and on an afternoon visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego.

Operation Gatekeeper also calls for a pilot project that will close the controversial checkpoint at San Clemente as soon as next week and move most of the 95 agents who operate the station to San Diego.

Most of the 70 officers who operate another such checkpoint at Temecula will also be reassigned to the border under the pilot project. It was not immediately clear whether the post at Temecula will remain open.

“What we want to do is a sensible evaluation that shows how the people deployed at checkpoints could be used most effectively,” Reno said.

The checkpoints have long been the focus of criticism from civil libertarians, local residents and commuters. Even many immigration officials say the agents would be better deployed at the border.

Support for the checkpoints’ continued operation has come mainly from immigration officers for whom inland stations represent promotion opportunities and an alternative to grueling border duty.

The shift of agents from San Clemente and Temecula represents a major step toward the potential phasing out of one or both checkpoints, Justice Department officials said Saturday. A final decision could come before the end of the year, they said.

Political pressure for the border buildup has resulted partly from the success of a “blockade” in El Paso, where a show of force along the Rio Grande has dramatically cut illegal crossing. In contrast, San Diego agents will be deployed in three “tiers”--a lower-profile strategy that officials hope will prove effective while avoiding violence at the volatile Tijuana line.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Brown, who had recommended redeployment of the checkpoint agents to help on the border, said Operation Gatekeeper is “a step in the right direction.”

Brown’s opponent, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, has sought to portray her as soft on illegal immigration. However, in a statement issued after Reno’s speech, she tried to counter that image: “It is time we take strong steps to stop the flow of illegal immigrants.”

Wilson had nothing good to say about Reno’s plan, commenting through a spokesman that it was a “Band-Aid for a hemorrhage.”

Wilson Press Secretary Sean Walsh said incarcerating criminal illegal immigrants costs California $475 million a year, while the state will receive only a share of the $130 million earmarked for all states that incur such expenses.

In response to a question about Proposition 187, which would deny public education and health care to illegal immigrants, Reno said:

“I look at the children of America and the children in trouble and it doesn’t solve the problems by denying them health care, it doesn’t solve the problems by denying them counseling and it doesn’t solve the problems by denying them education.”