Inland Border Checkpoints Essential

* Many Californians--I am one--believe the federal government has not done enough to control illegal immigration at the border with Mexico. With my colleagues in Congress, I have been working to develop more effective strategies. But now that task is complicated by the threatened elimination of the two inland border checkpoints at San Clemente and Temecula.

As chairman of the Border Enforcement Working Group of the Congressional Task Force on Immigration Reform, I have had the opportunity to review dozens of different options for reducing illegal entry. One option which our task force recommends strongly is to improve the checkpoints on highways leading from the border.

I believe closing these checkpoints would be a grievous mistake. While it may be possible to slow illegal entry into the United States, it will never be possible to hermetically seal our borders. It’s absolutely necessary to rely on inland checkpoints to apprehend illegal entrants and drug smugglers who will evade detection at the border.

According to Border Patrol statistics, between fiscal year 1991 and mid-fiscal year 1994, agents at the San Clemente and Temecula checkpoints apprehended 281,000 illegal immigrants, seized $29 million worth of illegal drugs, confiscated 380 weapons, apprehended 14,000 criminal immigrants, seized $3 million in cash and arrested 1,300 other felony violators.

In fiscal year 1994 alone, these two checkpoints were responsible for the seizure of 31% of the marijuana, 50% of the cocaine, 77% of the heroin, 98% of other drugs and 82% of weapons confiscated by the Border Patrol in the San Diego sector of operations.

The effectiveness of these paired checkpoints has been demonstrated in a perverse way. During a series of temporary closings of the San Clemente checkpoint, apprehensions at the Temecula checkpoint fell 50% in just one month. It’s obvious that illegal immigrants took advantage of the closed checkpoint and simply drove up Interstate 5 rather than Interstate 15.

From our studies, it’s clear that these checkpoints should not only remain open but should be operated 24 hours a day. They should also be modernized by adding lanes and equipment to enhance their effectiveness and reduce the inconvenience to local citizens.

The performance of the checkpoints at San Clemente and Temecula illustrates that they are indispensable to combatting illegal immigration and that no matter how hard we try, smugglers will still successfully evade detection at our first line of deterrence on the border. We must keep the checkpoints open.

U.S. REP. ED ROYCE

Fullerton