Study urges checking on border checkpoints

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Study urges checking on border checkpoints
BORDER PATROL: A study recommends finding better ways to evaluate costs and effectiveness.

11:07 PM PDT on Friday, July 22, 2005


By ROCKY SALMON / The Press-Enterprise

An investigative branch of Congress is requesting that Border Patrol officials develop better ways to determine and improve effectiveness at interior checkpoints, including the one in Temecula.

The recommendations are part of a study released Friday evening.

Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, and Ken Calvert, R-Corona, requested the study from the U.S. General Accounting Office in February after motorists criticized the Temecula and San Clemente checkpoints. The report added there wasn't enough data to determine how effective the checkpoints are.

"We hoped there would be some definite conclusions," said Frederick Hill, spokesman for Issa's office. "At least the study recognized there is a problem."

Border Patrol officials were unavailable Friday evening.

The 91-page report looked at 33 traffic checkpoints in the southwest region of the nation and one in northern New York state.

The agency wanted to find out how the Border Patrol used permanent and moving checkpoints as part of its strategy and how effective it was in deterring or catching undocumented immigrants, the report said.

In 2004, agents in the southwest interior checkpoints, which make up about 10 percent of total agents, caught 96,000 undocumented immigrants and found 418,000 pounds of marijuana.

But those who compiled the study could not find direct data to determine how much of a role San Clemente and Temecula played. They also couldn't find out how much it was costing to run the checkpoints.

San Clemente is the busiest interior checkpoint in the nation with 144,000 vehicles a day passing through. Temecula was second with 122,000 vehicles.

The Border Patrol told the agency that it could not provide the needed data because interior checkpoints are considered part of a "multilayered enforcement strategy and cannot be easily separated for evaluation purposes."

For instance, if an undocumented immigrant is caught in Temecula then taken to San Diego for deportation, Border Patrol official do not know how to determine what station the cost would go to, the report stated.

I can personally vouch what a great job the checkpoints do. I've been stopped and searched numerous times at both of them.

One look at all the illegals in the state should show their overall effectiveness. The only thing they are slowing down is the traffic.