Reinforcement of Border Control Measures Begins

A day after the formal kickoff of a much-ballyhooed enforcement buildup, officials said Wednesday that about 300 additional immigration officers were largely in place along the U.S.-Mexico border and at various airports and checkpoints in Southern California and Arizona.

The agents and inspectors are to assist in developing a “corridor of control” during the post-holiday season, when illegal immigrants traditionally head north. The surge is expected to be especially pronounced this year, given Mexico’s stultified economy.

But still awaiting implementation, authorities said, are several of the Clinton administration’s key control measures--including the controversial deployment of local police and sheriff’s deputies to assist Border Patrol agents and an expansion of the military’s role. Those plans may take several weeks to put into place.

Also yet to be launched, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said, is a new Border Patrol checkpoint on westbound Interstate 10, the major freeway linking Los Angeles and Phoenix. Authorities described the facility as vital in shutting an increasingly important “side door” into metropolitan Los Angeles, the principal destination for illegal immigrants.

A central goal of the administration is to disrupt the patterns of immigrant smugglers--known as coyotes--who have devised ingenious tactics to avoid detection, matching the Border Patrol step for step and often anticipating and outflanking official vigilance. At least half of all illicit border-crossers bound for Southern California employ professional smugglers, according to INS estimates.

With the unprecedented enforcement buildup of recent years, many coyotes have turned to more easterly routes, directing clients across the border into less-patrolled stretches of Arizona, the Imperial Valley and the San Diego County back country. The circuitous trek often leads groups into Los Angeles from the east.

The I-10 checkpoint, now scheduled to be set up within the next week or so 30 miles east of Indio, is the only new traffic stop planned, INS officials said. But authorities said the influx of new agents will allow almost around-the-clock operation of a dozen or so checkpoints that are now staffed sporadically.

In addition, the Border Patrol also will continue near-constant operation of its two largest checkpoints--on Interstate 5 near San Clemente and Interstate 15 near Temecula--that monitor the primary routes of northbound traffic in Southern California.

The renewed emphasis on checkpoints underlines how the Border Patrol staffing increases of recent years have yielded much greater strategic flexibility.

Historically, the INS has maintained that checkpoints are essential in maintaining a second line of defense against those illegal immigrants who inevitably evade detection in the immediate border zone. But checkpoints have had limited political appeal, particularly because the public associates them with traffic tie-ups, high-speed chases and crashes.

A few years ago, policymakers bemoaning a lack of agents were contemplating shutting down the facilities at San Clemente and Temecula and redeploying personnel south to the border strip.

Now, with the Border Patrol ranks having swollen to a record of more than 5,000 agents nationwide, authorities are reemphasizing the importance of traffic stops, both on major highways and on back roads leading from the border.

“Checkpoints are an important enforcement tool, and critical to what we’re doing on the border,” said Michael Nicley, the Border Patrol’s assistant regional director.

Along with 200 new Border Patrol agents deployed to California and Arizona, the INS this week dispatched 40 new inspectors to the huge border crossing at San Ysidro, by some measures the world’s busiest port of entry.

The officers are needed both to avoid extensive traffic backups and to assist in detecting the many false-document users and impostors who authorities say are showing up with increasing frequency.

In addition, 60 new plainclothes agents were assigned this week to key airports--Los Angeles International and those in San Diego, Tucson and Phoenix. All are important jumping-off points for illegal immigrants headed to points throughout the United States.

Meantime, authorities are still working out complex legal and procedural issues surrounding the administration’s plans to have up to 135 local law enforcement officers assisting Border Patrol agents. The officers, who will be paid from a special Justice Department account of $5 million, probably will perform tasks such as transporting and fingerprinting suspects, said Nicley of the Border Patrol.

Such mixing of roles, critics say, sends the wrong message, and may prompt many immigrants fearful of deportation to avoid the police. Mexican authorities and immigrant advocates also voice concern about the administration’s plans to expand the use of military personnel.

While the military’s role is strictly limited to providing logistic support against drug trafficking, INS agents also find the aid useful in combating illegal immigration. For example, military surveillance teams using night-vision equipment to spot drug smugglers have also identified many suspected illegal immigrants and passed the information on to the Border Patrol.

In coming weeks, the military plans to boost land and air surveillance in the border area and send in an engineering team to help install border lights, said Maureen Bossch, a spokeswoman for Joint Task Force 6, the El Paso-based unit that coordinates military assistance.

Times staff writers Tony Perry in San Diego and Tom Gorman in Riverside contributed to this report.