Thread: Checkpoint changes could benefit motorists

Posted: 02/22/2009 01:00:00 AM MST


It may be too early to fully determine, but it looks like improvements at local Border Patrol checkpoints could help in two ways.

The changes could help Border Patrol do their job better, and possibly streamline the process for those going through the checkpoints.

Perhaps most the notable change for average travelers will be at the I-25 checkpoint north of Las Cruces, where extra lanes should allow smaller vehicles to be processed more quickly. Workers are a little more than a third of the way into the project, which is expected to be completed by late summer. Border Patrol officials say between 3,000 and 5,000 vehicles pass through the I-25 checkpoint daily.

Even more travelers go through the I-10 checkpoint between Las Cruces and Deming, about 9,000 per day. Similar improvements will take place there, but construction has not started yet. Funding has not been made available, but that's expected to happen this fiscal year.

Motorists may also have noticed a series of lights and cameras at the entrances to some of the checkpoints.

These include X-rays, and the system serves to scan vehicles and help detect hidden items. This technology has been used at checkpoints for a while, but on a more temporary basis using mobile equipment. The plan is for the technology to eventually be a permanent fixture at all checkpoints.

The Border Patrol says the equipment enables agents to get an image of things that might be hidden in a vehicle.

A lot of people already take issue with the questioning at checkpoints, considering it a breach of privacy. For those folks, the idea of an X-ray machine scanning their vehicle may be over the top.

As a nation, we've been wrestling to find the balance between security and privacy since Sept. 11. Living on the border adds another level of complication to that balance.

We don't want our privacy violated. But neither do we want to see people get away with human trafficking, or moving large quantities of potentially dangerous contraband.

For most of us, who are typically moving through the checkpoints in the most mundane, routine manner, the primary concern is simply getting in and out as quickly as possible. If these improvements make for easier ingress and egress at the checkpoints, that's a step in the right direction.

If the improvements can help Border Patrol agents do their job more effectively, it's a double bonus.




http://www.scsun-news.com/ci_11751689

I wonder how many from south of our border will be using this crossing? lol Not many, I'll bet.