ACLU takes on Escondido's license checkpoints

By Angela Lau (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer

8:22 p.m. April 21, 2009

ESCONDIDO – The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday demanded that the city of Escondido change the way it conducts driver's license checkpoints, which critics say are intended to apprehend and deport illegal immigrants and are resulting in suspicion and resentment among many Latinos.

At a news conference in San Diego with El Grupo – a coalition of Latino and advocacy organizations – the ACLU said the city needs to be more transparent.

Escondido has checkpoints about twice a month, for two hours, on a busy road. Drivers who fail to produce licenses or have revoked or suspended licenses are stopped, and usually their vehicles are impounded.

If a warrant check shows that they are illegal immigrants and are wanted by immigration authorities, they are turned over, Police Chief Jim Maher said.

Those who can't be identified are taken to the police station for fingerprinting and a background check.

Andrea Guerrero, an ACLU director, said police should record all interactions between officers and drivers at the checkpoints, list the ethnicity of drivers who are stopped to safeguard against profiling, and appoint an oversight committee to monitor the department.

“Driver's license checkpoints are fishing expeditions for illegal immigrants,â€