Border Patrol Station Gets Help

A $13-million project is underway to cut 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 more northbound lanes 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 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 [the checkpoint] 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, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. “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.”

Greater efficiency and safety for the public and patrol agents were cited by Williams as prompting the expansion at the checkpoint, which is the nation’s largest and has been in service since the 1920s.

Last year, agents apprehended 18,459 illegal immigrants and seized 11,423 pounds of marijuana with a street value of $9.1 million. This year, agents have seized more than 41 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated value of $1.3 million.

The project results from a compromise reached last December by INS 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.

Packard and Orange County officials have contended that the checkpoints create hazards by delaying traffic along Interstates 5 and 15 and by causing high-speed chases involving 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.”

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

The two new lanes are scheduled to be completed in June 1997, said Col. Michael Robinson, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles. Construction of any additional structures is expected to be completed by October 1998.