EVIDENCE OF THE POLICE STATE SERIES

New San Onofre Checkpoint Lanes Opened Monday


By Fred Swegles
DANA POINT NEWS



Unless you're a drug smuggler, immigrant smuggler, shifty-eyed crook or someone with a nervous twitch, driving through the San Onofre checkpoint should be easier today than ever before. With little fanfare, the government opened an expanded Border Patrol checkpoint Monday at 5 am in the northbound lanes of Interstate 5, five miles south of San Clemente.

It's two lanes bigger than the old checkpoint, which should reduce traffic backups. And one of the new lanes is an automated commuter lane, designed to let pre-screened people pass without waiting in line. "It went really smoothly," said Charlie Geer, agent in charge of the checkpoint, late in the day Monday. "No hitches at all. Today was real quiet."

Only about 15 cars used the commuter lane Monday morning, but that will soon change. So far about 250 motorists have been approved to participate in the commuter lane, Geer said, but about 900 permit applicants are being given background checks by the FBI, which takes time. So far the Border Patrol reports receiving more than 5,000 requests for commuter permits. People can apply by visiting a Border Patrol office in the Gateway Village Plaza shopping center on the 800 block of Avenida Pico in San Clemente. The commuter lane is nicknamed PAL (Pre- enrolled Access Lane). It is the first of its kind offered by the Border Patrol at any of the 20 immigration checkpoints that operate nationwide.

Congressman Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) proposed the commuter lane along with an additional lane and 24-hour, 7-day a week operation of the checkpoint to improve effectiveness and reduce traffic tie-ups. The checkpoint used to operate part-time, which meant smugglers could wait to the south while a scout went through the facility and then called back via cell phone to say if the coast was clear. Now, officials say the checkpoint is fully staffed and will operate full-time except when weather or traffic conditions require brief shutdowns.

The following letter was sent to the Dana Point News, in order to point out that the communities around the checkpoint are opposed to it:

I find Mr. Swegles article on the San Onofre Checkpoint offensive in that it makes the allegation that the only people who might be unhappy with a police checkpoint are drug smugglers and shifty eyed crooks! Sorry Fred, you're wrong! I have lived here since 1972, and I know a large number of people in south Orange County, and almost all of them are offended by the presence of a border crossing over 100 miles north of the border. The idea that average Americans invite FBI checks of their integrity is absolutely offensive. Why doesn't Fred examine the genuine nature of the Border Patrol, which was started in the 1920s as a posse. In recent years INS employees have brought lawsuits against it for entrenched racism, and what they referred to as an Aryan mindset. Where is the honesty? The border crossing is not there to catch illegal immigrants, it is there to keep an eye on American nationals. It is an inconvenient imposition on us, not Mexicans; it is a police-state fixture that you and your colleagues have become reconciled to, without ever addressing the concerns of the community. The very statement that the only people who might object are criminals is patently offensive. There is only one thing Orange County residents want, and that is that the police checkpoint be shut down. Americans may be handicapped by the educations we receive in public schools, but we are not stupid. We know what a police state looks and feels like, and that is what this checkpoint is. Because I don't think the Dana Point News is objective, I will be posting this letter, and the article, on my website, to guarantee that this point of view is published, and not suppressed, as is the habit of the local press.

Marc Eric Ely-Chaitlin
Dana Point, California



Dana Point
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