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