INS Buildup to Close San Clemente Checkpoint : Immigration: About 95 agents are being moved to San Diego for Operation Gatekeeper, which begins Oct. 1.

As the Border Patrol prepares for a crackdown next month that will double its strength at the international line, commanders are still working on a plan to temporarily close the agency’s freeway checkpoint near San Clemente, officials said Wednesday.

Current plans for Operation Gatekeeper, an immigration control initiative announced by Atty. Gen. Janet Reno during a visit to California last week, include the transfer of the 95 agents who have been working at the busy Interstate 5 checkpoint, according to Ann Summers, the chief spokeswoman for the Border Patrol.

“San Clemente is going to be shut down,” Summers said. “When and for how long, we don’t know yet.”

With the Oct. 1 start date for Operation Gatekeeper approaching, immigration officials are wrestling with the logistics and politics of the unprecedented show of force, which Reno said is intended to match the success of a Border Patrol blockade in El Paso. The initiative comes during an election season in which both political parties are clamoring for action against illegal immigration.

The Border Patrol will deploy more than 200 extra agents in San Diego, fingerprint all suspects to check for repeat offenders and wanted criminals, prosecute smugglers more aggressively and continue installing lights and fences at the international boundary. The number of agents actually guarding the border, currently about 100 per shift, will at least double, Summers said. The Border Patrol contingent in San Diego will grow from 1,000 to 1,400 agents by the end of the year as a result of increased congressional funding.

Immigration officials will also conduct a study to determine the border crackdown’s effect on activity at the Temecula checkpoint, and the ultimate fate of the two stations.

“Basically we are trying to determine the most effective use of the resources,” said a Justice Department official who asked not to be identified. “There has been some debate over the effectiveness of the checkpoints within the agency, and that’s what the evaluations will be able to tell us.”

Politicians and other critics want the checkpoints closed permanently because of safety, traffic and civil liberties issues. They say the forces would be more effective on the front lines.

Although some immigration officials agree, others argue that the checkpoints are a second line of defense against drug and immigrant smuggling. In addition, some agents regard the inland assignments as an avenue for promotions and an alternative to grueling border duty.

The San Clemente and Temecula stations have accounted for about 13% of apprehensions of illegal immigrants in the San Diego sector this year and about 33% of the marijuana seizures. The 75-agent station near Temecula will remain open partly because it is considered an important bulwark against drugs moving from the active Imperial Valley smuggling corridor on the east, said spokeswoman Ana Cobian of the Justice Department.

Among the potential results of the operation, border agencies expect an acceleration of an already-popular tactic: illegal immigrants who try to sneak through the legal ports of entry with fake documents or hidden in vehicles, rather than braving the rugged canyons of the Tijuana River Valley.

An ongoing buildup of Border Patrol forces this year has already led to a 14% increase in illegal immigrants intercepted at the ports of entry. “When the (Border) Patrol clamps down, this activity goes up,” said Rudy Murillo, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

In response, 61 new immigration inspectors will be assigned to the international freeway crossings in San Diego. U.S. officials hope to avoid a repeat of January, 1992, when an unusually heavy Border Patrol deployment spurred smugglers to orchestrate group charges of illegal immigrants through the inspection lanes into freeway traffic.

Those mass freeway rushes--which have been immortalized in subsequent California campaign commercials--were finally brought under control with the aid of Grupo Beta, a Mexican border police unit that protects immigrants and occasionally cooperates with U.S. authorities.

Grupo Beta is among the Mexican agencies with which U.S. immigration authorities are meeting to prevent the border buildup from causing violence if crowds of frustrated immigrants accumulate south of the border.

“There have been briefings at different levels of the Mexican government concerning the operation,” Summers said. “As kind of a courtesy, (we’re) letting them know what’s up.”

Border Patrol officials say the San Diego initiative is less confrontational than the El Paso blockade, in which a wall of agents posted along the Rio Grande was denounced by the Mexican government.