Border Patrol Boost : 2 Traffic Lanes to Be Added at San Onofre Checkpoint

A $13-million project is underway to reduce motorist delays and expand hours of operation at the Border Patrol’s much-maligned checkpoint on Interstate 5 south of San Clemente.

Besides adding two northbound lanes beginning half a mile south of the checkpoint, the project calls for a new administration office at the site and all-weather protective canopies for Border Patrol agents as they check passing vehicles for illegal immigrants and smuggled drugs.

The project is a scaled-down version of an earlier $30-million Border Patrol proposal that involved enlarging the current four-lane checkpoint into a giant, 16-lane facility.

“We know the checkpoint needs to be larger,” said Johnny Williams, the the agency’s San Diego sector chief. “We have the funding to expand the checkpoint to six lanes, which will allow a greater volume of traffic through and enable it to stay open for longer periods of time.”

Patrol officials acknowledge that there has been pressure from elected officials and the public either to close the checkpoint in favor of beefing up the Border Patrol’s presence at the U.S.-Mexico border, or to improve the checkpoint’s efficiency. Inspections are now random at the checkpoint.

“The facility operates 24 hours a day now,” said Virginia Kice, an immigration agency spokeswoman. “It goes up and down in what we call pulsing. When the traffic’s too heavy or it’s foggy, we have to take it down or we will seriously impact traffic safety.”

Williams said the expansion is aimed at providing greater efficiency and safety for the public and patrol agents at the checkpoint, which is the nation’s largest and has been in service since the 1920s.

Last year, agents at the checkpoint apprehended 18,459 illegal immigrants and seized 11,423 pounds of marijuana with a street value of $9.1 million.

This year so far, agents have seized more than 41 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated value of $1.3 million.

The expansion project results from a compromise reached last December by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner and Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside), who had fought to remove the checkpoints, favoring stopping illegal immigration at the border.

House lawmakers approved the compromise late last year, allowing Border Patrol checkpoints at San Clemente and on Interstate 15 in Temecula to remain open as long as the INS met conditions set by Packard.

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Packard and officials in Orange County have argued that the checkpoints create hazards by delaying traffic along Interstates 5 and 15 and by causing high-speed chases by Border Patrol agents.

“I am encouraged that the project is finally moving forward after nearly a decade of delay,” Packard said. “The expansion will allow the checkpoint to operate as it was originally intended, with agents on the lanes, all day, every day.”

San Clemente Mayor Steve Apodaca backed the expansion project, but with reservations.

“Personally, I favor stopping illegal immigration at the border,” Apodaca said. “But the expansion is absolutely the key to having that checkpoint open 24 hours a day. If we’re going to be giving the San Clemente checkpoint one last try, these steps would certainly help.”

Apodaca added that if the effort is not successful, “we will be right back here arguing for closure.”

Packard had insisted that should the checkpoint remain open, it operate around-the-clock with additional lanes and with a commuter lane to be opened at some point.

Besides the expansion, the Border Patrol is inaugurating a pilot commuter program that, if successful, could result in the commuter lane being established.

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The pilot program is patterned on those at the U.S.-Canada border and in Otay Mesa, near San Ysidro in San Diego County. Under the program, 300 volunteer participants will receive windshield decals allowing them to pass without inspection on their way to and from work.

So far, Congress has appropriated $7.5 million toward the overall $13-million project, according to Ron Henley, a Border Patrol spokesman in San Ysidro.

Design contracts have been awarded by the Army Corps of Engineers for the two lanes, administrative building and freeway canopies for the agents, said Col. Michael Robinson, commander of the Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles.

Building the two lanes will be expedited, Robinson said, and they are scheduled to be completed in June of next year, “because INS has been under some fire” to reduce inspection delay time. Construction of the buildings and any additional structures and features is expected to be completed by October 1998.

“We would like to see ground breaking as soon as possible for the lane additions, and the earliest for that is by this fall in November,” Robinson said.

Williams said that since his arrival a year ago as chief of the sector that includes the checkpoint, he has tried to reach a balance between law enforcement needs and delays for motorists.

“We’ve set a rule where we are trying to back up traffic no more than a 15-minute wait,” Williams said. “That’s the rule, we’re trying to make that commitment.”

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He said the pilot commuter program is part of the effort to streamline traffic flow.

Under the volunteer program, each person who enrolls will be subjected to a background check to make sure they have no criminal records. If they clear, they’ll receive the decal allowing them to pass through the checkpoint.

“However,” Williams said, “that comes with the understanding that the enrollees are subject to a search at any time.”