Thread: Checkpoint draws critics

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Checkpoint draws critics
BORDER PATROL: A lawmaker questions the Temecula facility's value even as its building takes shape.

11:38 PM PDT on Sunday, September 4, 2005


By TAMMY McCOY / The Press-Enterprise

With federal and state politicians calling for stronger illegal-immigration enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in Temecula say an $8 million facility currently being built in Murrieta should improve the agency's efficiency and effectiveness.

The Murrieta facility, scheduled to open by year's end, will offer high-tech support for the Border Patrol agents who currently work at a modest checkpoint office on Interstate 15 south of Temecula.

Computer equipment at the new building will help agents avoid delays in tracking criminals, reviewing fingerprints and gathering criminal-background information.


William Wilson Lewis III / The Press-Enterprise
A senior agent stands in the holding area of the Border Patrol's new building in Murrieta, which is expected to cost about $8 million and give high-tech support to agents at the Temecula checkpoint.



The building also will more than double the agency's local detention capacity.

With about 122,000 vehicles passing through that checkpoint daily, according to a federal study, illegal-immigrant arrests totaled 4,214 between Oct. 1, the start of the federal fiscal year, and Aug. 22, said Agent Sean Isham, a Border Patrol spokesman. That's about a 22 percent decline over the same period in fiscal 2004.

The fewer arrests are largely the result of more illegal-immigrant crossings now occurring along Arizona's border with Mexico, rather than California's, said Victor Jaime, supervisory agent at the Temecula office. Manpower has been shifted from the Border Patrol's San Diego sector to help in Arizona.

Challenges to Agency

Construction of the 31,000- square-foot building nears completion at a time when the Border Patrol appears to be one of the least-understood federal agencies in the American Southwest. The Minuteman Project, a citizens group, is offering its own defense of the border, and some lawmakers in Sacramento are proposing that the Border Patrol be put under state jurisdiction.

As the governors of New Mexico and Arizona call for increases in the numbers of Border Patrol agents monitoring the border through their states, an Inland congressman is contending that the Temecula checkpoint isn't the best way to use agents.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, has been critical of the Border Patrol's current mission at the checkpoint. He wants the agency's primary objective to be cracking down on smugglers and criminal aliens, rather than screening traffic for illegal aliens at the checkpoint.

"If those agents were put specifically into going after coyotes (smugglers) and criminal aliens, my district would be safer," Issa said this week from his Washington, D.C., office.

"Al-Qaida is the greatest single threat, but behind them are people who rob, rape and murder," he said. "I want to see the Border Patrol, ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) and the U.S. attorney focus on criminal aliens."

Issa added that the new facility in Murrieta should not specifically support the I-15 checkpoint. He thinks it should be used by any federal agency.

"A federal building is a federal building," Issa said. "It will be needed, one way or the other."

The new building will house administrative offices and provide additional detention space for illegal immigrants. It will replace what is described as a cramped office space leased in western Temecula.

'Bigger, Modern Facility'

Isham, the Border Patrol spokesman, declined to give the agency's current staffing level, but Jaime, the office's supervising agent, estimated that the new facility will accommodate about 300 employees.

"It's a bigger, modern facility," said Jaime. "That's all it is. It does not represent a shift in anything. We are not abandoning the checkpoint."

Illegal immigrants apprehended in this area now are held in one of the three jail cells at the checkpoint until they are taken to a detention center, usually in San Diego or Los Angeles counties. Jaime said the new building will have seven holding cells.

He added that the checkpoint is part of a system of defenses that gives agents a second chance to find those who cross the border undetected.

Agents also work with local law enforcement and are assigned to a several groups that target illegal-immigrant criminals -- something Issa said should be their primary responsibility.

Federal Report

Issa and Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, commissioned a General Accounting Office study that concluded there was not enough data from the Border Patrol to form an opinion on the checkpoint's effectiveness.

The study said only a small percentage of all the Border Patrol's 10,800 agents are assigned to interior checkpoints such as the one on I-15. Isham declined to say how many agents are currently assigned to the Border Patrol's Temecula station, citing "operational" concerns.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol, agreed with the GAO's recommendation that it develop ways of measuring productivity and effectiveness by the 2006 fiscal year, according to the GAO report.

The Border Patrol's San Diego sector, which includes Temecula station and six in San Diego County, made about 150,000 arrests in the 2004 fiscal year, according to the GAO. This was the second-largest number of arrests from among the Border Patrol's nine Southwestern sectors, which cover the stretch from Texas to California. Only Tucson, Ariz., made more arrests, about 500,000, according to the GAO.

Element of Surprise

Staffing, field intelligence and weather often shift emphasis away from the I-15 checkpoint station, Jaime said, adding that this is why it isn't always open. Border Patrol agents conduct roving patrols and set up checkpoints at the other locations.

The element of surprise makes those checkpoints more effective at nabbing illegal immigrants and smugglers who have avoided the fixed checkpoints, Jaime said.

With each arrest, agents hope to gain more information to help them disrupt the smugglers' operations, he said.

"It's a constant battle to stay ahead of them," Jaime said. "We try to keep them guessing. They have scouts to see if the checkpoints are operational."

The fewer arrests are largely the result of more illegal-immigrant crossings now occurring along Arizona's border with Mexico, rather than California's, said Victor Jaime, supervisory agent at the Temecula office. Manpower has been shifted from the Border Patrol's San Diego sector to help in Arizona.

Easy Fix, set up shop in Az.