Good . . . Now Keep It Closed : U.S. to temporarily shut down San Clemente border checkpoint

The decision to shutter the Border Patrol checkpoint south of San Clemente has been billed as a temporary measure that will permit the redeployment of personnel to immigration control efforts along the border. The closing is good as far as it goes, but it ought to be made permanent.

The change, for which no starting or ending time was announced, will open the way for Operation Gatekeeper, an immigration control initiative announced by U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno. That initiative, due to begin next month, will entail transferring the 95 agents assigned to the checkpoint. They will work immediately along the border--a far more useful allocation of personnel than placing them 62 miles inside the country.

Illegal immigration has become a convenient political target, and the new operation does coincide with the final weeks of the election campaign. However, the money is not there to do everything, and the federal government should be credited for recognizing it must make tough choices.

The handwriting was on the wall earlier this year when the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service acknowledged that it couldn’t afford an ambitious $30-million plan to upgrade the checkpoint. The agency said then that it was taking a welcome look at the checkpoints in light of fiscal realities.

It makes more sense to put the proposed extra agents--more than 200--in San Diego than to stop people on a busy interstate after they already are well across the border. There has been pressure as well from Congress members and others who wanted the INS to abandon the checkpoint because of questions about effectiveness and safety.

It is time to conclude that the long-running show at the Interstate 5 checkpoint has been a flop. Do what any Broadway producer would do in similar circumstances: close the curtain.