Future of INS Checkpoints Under Review : Immigration: U.S. may shut down San Onofre and Temecula stations. Although motorists complain of delays, some officials call the sites necessary.

Standing in the middle of California’s busy Interstate 5 south of here on Wednesday, 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, 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 checkpoint--more than 106,000 vehicles daily--is being weighed in Washington. Whether the California fixture since 1924 remains open, or shuts as the motorist would prefer, could be decided later this month by U.S. 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 at San Onofre six miles south of here 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 or be pulled over for an inspection, have said they want the checkpoint to remain open because it helps stem illegal immigration and has an impact in the fight against drugs and crime.

Harold Ezell, former INS western regional commissioner and president of Americans Against Illegal Immigration, said 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.”

Congress allocated the INS $10 million to help build a new, 16-lane checkpoint that was supposed to be operational by 1995, which would have helped the traffic problem, Ezell said.

“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 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 months-long test started in October, 1994, to assess whether moving about 140 agents from the checkpoints to the border can significantly reduce illegal crossings. It was a success, the INS declared.

When Gatekeeper began, temporary closure of the checkpoint facility was hailed by some who call it a threat to public safety. 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 high-speed chases through nearby communities.

“I think that they can do their job equally as effectively if they do that job at the border,” said San Clemente City Council member Scott Diehl. 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.”

The safety factor 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) supported the expansion, but with funding difficult and the recent successful efforts to redirect staff allocation 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.”

Between October, 1994, and June 6 of this year, the number of apprehensions at both checkpoints was 24,500, representing about 8% of the total apprehensions for the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector, a Border Patrol spokesman said.

In marijuana seizures, the two checkpoints have accounted for 6,184 pounds of the drug confiscated, or about 16% of the sector’s total. San Onofre reported 16 pounds of cocaine seized and Temecula, 79 pounds. Combined, those seizures represent 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, which was 47% of recoveries for the sector, the Border Patrol spokesman said.

Even though the checkpoint has had an impact on 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 the experiment of 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.”