A Checkpoint Reprieve for Commuters

Motorists who travel Interstate 5 regularly are about to get a break from the chronic traffic delays at the San Onofre immigration checkpoint.

Federal immigration officials began accepting applications Monday for a new automated commuter program that will allow motorists to use a special lane on the highway after being scanned electronically.

Johnny Williams, San Diego chief Border Patrol agent, said the program will allow officers to concentrate on “high-risk” traffic in other lanes while program participants drive on.

“This program began in part in recognition of the needs of the motoring public,” said Williams, who opened the patrol’s enrollment center in San Clemente at the Gateway Village Plaza, 806 E. Avenida Pico, Suite E.

On average, more than 5,000 motorists an hour pass the checkpoint, Williams said, making it the nation’s busiest.

Applicants for the Pre-enrolled Access Lane program, known as PAL, will have to be fingerprinted and photographed, and will have to pass a background check for previous criminal activity. Applicants will receive bar-coded decals for their vehicles but will not be able to use them until the Border Parol gives final approval, a spokesman said.

The decal will be affixed on the vehicle’s driver’s side window. As the motorist approaches the checkpoint at 15 mph in an access lane, a scanner will verify the vehicle’s participation in the program. The vehicle will then be able to proceed.

San Clemente City Council member Lois R. Berg, who attended Monday’s office opening, signed up on the spot to be the first participant.

Berg praised the project, saying she had been delayed in checkpoint traffic on a recent weekend.

“I think everyone who travels on that freeway would be welcoming this program,” she said.

Williams predicted that thousands of people will sign up. If that happens, he said, the Border Patrol will consider installing electronic transponders on vehicles so that they can cross the checkpoint at highway speeds.

PAL is part of the immigration agency’s $13-million program to reduce motorist delays and expand hours of operation at the checkpoint.

It also includes construction of two additional freeway lanes, to be finished by June, and an administrative building and canopies for the agents, to be completed by October 1998.

The expansion results from a compromise reached in late 1995 between Doris Meissner, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner, and Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside), who had fought to remove the checkpoint and instead crack down on illegal immigration at the border.

Federal lawmakers approved the compromise, 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. Those included staffing the checkpoint up to 24 hours a day and installing a commuter lane.

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

Enrollment in PAL is free.

Applications are available at the San Clemente office, by telephone or by mail, an INS spokeswoman said. They will also be available soon on the Internet.

The enrollment center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Information: (888) 223-2725.