Checkpoint Gets Careful Look : Fate of Border Patrol Operation May Hinge on Its Effectiveness

Standing in the middle of California’s busy Interstate 5 south of here, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Roy D. Villareal saw the blue car zip by without stopping. He immediately hopped into a patrol car and, within seconds, caught up to the vehicle and had the driver pull over onto the freeway’s shoulder.

When Villareal returned to the checkpoint, he and his partner were asked what the driver had to say. Villareal’s partner replied: “He just wanted to express to us his opinion on how he felt the checkpoint should be shut down. He said he did stop.”

The fate of the nation’s busiest Border Patrol checkpoint, with more than 106,000 vehicles daily, is being weighed in Washington. Whether the California fixture since 1924 remains open or is shut down--as the motorist prefers--will be decided possibly later this month by Justice Department officials.

A spokesman for Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner said the commissioner will base her recommendation to Atty. Gen. Janet Reno on information being compiled by INS planning analysts.

“We are in the process of finishing up a report,” said Robert Bach, INS executive associate commissioner for policy and planning. “We’re putting together all figures on drug seizures, apprehensions, accidents, everything, and she will base her recommendation on the report and consultations she has had with community people and law enforcement.”

Reno’s decision will affect the checkpoint six miles south of San Clemente and another on Interstate 15 near Temecula. In all, there are 34 permanent Border Patrol checkpoints near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Border Patrol agents, who acknowledge that motorists hate to slow down or be pulled over for an inspection, have said that they want the checkpoint to remain open because it helps stem illegal immigration and has a large impact in the war against drugs and crime.

Harold Ezell, former INS western regional commissioner and president of Americans Against Illegal Immigration, based in Orange County, said that he favors keeping the checkpoints open because they work.

“The checkpoint’s no joke,” Ezell said. “It does serve as an incredible deterrent. Yes, it is an incredible pain in the neck for people going north in cars. But they’re using 1940s procedures for checking vehicles by standing out on the freeway next to a stop sign.”

The INS had $10 million granted from Congress to help build a new, 16-lane checkpoint that was supposed to be operational by 1995 and would have helped ease the traffic problem, Ezell argued.

“What did INS officials do with that money?” Ezell asked. “It seems to be an indictable offense, to take money for one thing and use it for another.”

INS spokeswoman Virginia Kice said that funding originally allocated for the expansion “was reprogrammed” for urgent priorities, which had the “full approval of Congress.”

“Mr. Ezell, perhaps more than anyone, should understand the funding of long-neglected Border Patrol efforts,” Kice said.

Then came Operation Gatekeeper, a five-month test started in October, 1994, to assess whether deploying about 140 agents from the checkpoints to the border could significantly reduce illegal crossings. It was a success, the INS later declared.

When Operation Gatekeeper began, the temporary closure of the Interstate 5 checkpoint was hailed by some who see it as a threat to public safety. Frequently, over the years, illegal immigrants have been killed or injured while dashing across the freeway to avoid the checkpoint, and the U.S. Border Patrol has engaged in many high-speed chases through nearby communities.

“I think that they can do their job equally as effective if they do that job at the border,” San Clemente Councilman Scott Diehl said. Diehl and other elected officials said they would rather have the Border Patrol catch illegal immigrants at the border than have them in a “high-speed chase in the middle of my town.”

It has been the safety factor that has rankled local officials such as Diehl, who initially supported the 16-lane expansion proposal.

The city’s position, Diehl said, was that if the government had to have a checkpoint there, “we were in favor of modifications to prevent chases from occurring in our city.”

Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) had also supported the expansion, but with funding difficult and the recent successful efforts to redirect staffing at the border, he has challenged the checkpoint’s use.

“Ron has not changed his position,” said Packard’s spokesman, Michael Eggers. “And we have not seen any indication that they’re going to make the checkpoints any more efficient.”

From October, 1994, to June 6, the number of apprehensions at both checkpoints was 24,500, representing about 8% of the total number of apprehensions for the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector during that period, an agency spokesman said.

In the same period, the two checkpoints confiscated 6,184 pounds of marijuana, or about 16% of the sector’s total. San Clemente also reported 16 pounds of cocaine seized and Temecula, 79 pounds. Combined, those seizures represented 6% of the sector’s total.

Where the checkpoints have been extremely beneficial, agents said, is in the recovery of stolen vehicles. During the same period, 102 stolen vehicles were recovered at the two sites, representing 47% of recoveries for the sector, a Border Patrol spokesman said.

But despite the Interstate 5 checkpoint’s effectiveness in drug seizures and stolen-vehicle recoveries, the success of Operation Gatekeeper has changed Diehl’s mind.

“We were encouraged with Janet Reno telling the INS to focus its efforts on the border,” Diehl said, “rather than at second or third lines of defense, such as the checkpoints. We do believe that [Operation Gatekeeper] worked very nicely. Certainly, if redirecting their agents to the border gave them a better ability to stem the illegal immigration flow, that serves us better.”

Immigration officials in Washington said the decision is “very complex.”

“It’s not only costly,” Bach said. “We’ve discovered that a lot of people in California are concerned in some ways, and they have strong views about the checkpoint.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Immigration Checkpoints

The San Clemente and Temecula Border Patrol checkpoints are under review by the U.S. Justice Department. The number of illegal immigrants apprehended at the two sites between October, 1994, and June 6 represented about 8% of the total seized by the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector. In the same period, the checkpoints are responsible for recovering nearly half the stolen-vehicle recoveries in the sector.

(Item: Amount)*

Apprehensions: 24,500

Marijuana: 6,184 pounds

Cocaine: 95 pounds

Stolen vehicles: 102

* Figures from October, 1994, to June 6

Source: U.S. Border Patrol