Panel OKs Funding for 2 Border Checkpoints

Opponents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service border checkpoints at San Clemente and Temecula were handed a setback Tuesday when a key Senate committee approved funding and staffing to keep the facilities open.

The vote by the Senate Appropriations Committee is at odds with House legislation which--at the urging of Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside)--stripped all funding for the inland immigration checkpoints on northbound Interstates 5 and 15, and transferred the resources to the U.S.-Mexico border.

If the full Senate approves the measure without changes, the conflict would have to be ironed out in a conference committee. Little opposition to the language is expected in the Senate.

Packard is fighting to close the facilities, arguing that they are not cost-effective and are taking scarce resources away from the border 60 miles to the south.

Public officials in south Orange County and north San Diego County also want the INS to abandon the San Clemente facility--the busiest inland Border Patrol checkpoint in the United States--claiming it poses a traffic hazard and an inconvenience to motorists on the heavily traveled freeway. They say vehicle stops at the checkpoint have led to high-speed chases that have spilled over into neighboring communities.

The INS temporarily closed the checkpoints last year and stationed their Border Patrol agents along the California-Mexico border to test Packard’s theory. The agency concluded that both checkpoints are part of the overall strategy needed to crack down on illegal immigration and drug smuggling in Southern California.

Tuesday’s vote in the Senate committee was a victory for INS Commissioner Doris Meissner and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who mounted a last-minute effort to maintain the checkpoints. Not only did the panel restore funding for the checkpoints, it also included $7.5 million the INS requested to upgrade the San Clemente facility.

Hours before the Senate panel convened, Meissner held a news conference to plead for continued operation of the facilities.

“History, research and common sense tell us that controlling the border requires a range of tactics that respond to the conditions of a particular area,” Meissner said. “It is critical that we cut off the main transportation arteries used to move human traffic north from the border.”

Feinstein also sent two letters to U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), chairman of the subcommittee that made the funding decisions, and listed those supporting continued operation of the checkpoints, including the conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform.

The battle over checkpoint funding barely reached the level of discussion during the committee deliberations. Gramm casually mentioned during discussion of another item that he had decided to drop the House provision that prohibits spending on the facilities.

“We talked to the INS, we talked to the two U.S. senators from California, who want to see it dropped. It’s a House provision, and we have proposed that it be dropped,” Gramm said.

Packard, however, also vowed to close the “ineffective and costly” checkpoints.

“I must emphasize my commitment and that of the House to retain the language included in [the House version],” Packard said in a statement.