At checkpoints, illegal immigrants risk losing cars

Deymi Barrios, a 25-year-old mom and illegal immigrant, had her car towed from a checkpoint in the Southern California community of Romoland for driving without a license. Wrestling car seats from her Ford Focus as her two young children cried, she said she understood why Riverside County sheriff's deputies impounded her car. "I know that the law is the law," Barrios said in Spanish. "But because I don't have papers, I can't get a license."Daytime checkpoints are gaining popularity among police as a way to make roads safer by taking cars from unlicensed drivers. But immigrant advocates say many of those caught up in checkpoints aren't dangerous motorists, just undocumented immigrants who cannot get a license. Barrios' car was one of 75 taken at a Highway 74 safety checkpoint run by the sheriff's department. Anyone who failed to produce a license was ushered through a gantlet of orange cones, where tow trucks were queued up like taxis at an airport. Barrios, who came illegally from Mexico seven years ago, worried about her husband's reaction to the $1,000-plus cost of retrieving their car. "We'll probably have to cut our telephone service," she said. "The only thing that could have made this worse is if immigration was here." U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were at two sheriff's checkpoints in nearby Canyon Lake, where they arrested 35 people suspected of immigration violations. ICE Assistant Field Director Eric Saldana said agents took nine people into custody March 27. Police had cited them for driving without a valid license. Eight opted for voluntary deportation, and one requested a hearing before a judge. At a December checkpoint, agents arrested 26. Saldana said agents got involved in checkpoints as part of ICE's criminal-alien program, which focuses on identifying illegal immigrants in jail. Collaborations on large-scale operations, such as checkpoints, are likely to become more common, he said, because Congress has granted ICE more funding to look for "criminal aliens."The presence of immigration agents is just the latest twist in the evolution of police checkpoints.Sobriety checkpoints became more widespread after a 1990 U.S. Supreme Court decision resolved questions about their legality. The federal government doles out special grants to help police fund nighttime DUI checkpoints. But in recent years, some law enforcement agencies say they've staged daytime checkpoints to target the maximum number of people driving without a valid license. Police say these drivers are more likely to cause a fatal crash. Capt. James McElvain, head of the sheriff's department's Perris Station, said Perris started checkpoints in part because the city had more than double the usual number of traffic fatalities in 2005 -- 15 people were killed. A study showed that about 70 percent of traffic collisions in Perris involved an unlicensed driver.Police do not track how many of the unlicensed drivers they cite are in the United States illegally. Based on demographics alone, McElvain said, it's inevitable that checkpoints will catch many illegal immigrants. In Southern California, "there's a large population that are undocumented immigrants," McElvain said. "That doesn't change the fact that we have a responsibility to our greater public ... to make us as safe as possible." Luz Gallegos, of TODEC Legal Center in Perris, said daytime checkpoints put an illegal immigrant at risk of being stranded or deported just driving to work.Whether the checkpoints improve public safety is an open question. When checkpoints began, one in three drivers was undocumented; now the ratio is one in six, a law, an officer said. If there are fewer unlicensed drivers at checkpoints, Gallegos said, it may be because people are trying to avoid them. For instance, people who see a checkpoint will call Spanish-language radio stations, which will broadcast the location, she said Garrett Yarbrough, manager of Champion towing, said most cars towed from checkpoints are worth little and are abandoned. Champion either auctions them off or sells them for scrap.Motorists who reclaim their cars after 30 days must pay $150 to the police department for a release and show a valid license or bring someone who has one. The owner must pay the towing company $140 for the tow and $40 or more per day for storage.If police checkpoints are about safety, state Sen. Gilbert Cedillo has another idea to reduce the numbers of unlicensed drivers on California roads. The lawmaker, who represents a Los Angeles-area district, has introduced legislation to license illegal immigrants.Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights of Los Angeles, sees the checkpoints as a way for local law enforcement to go after illegal immigrants and get revenue. She said the checkpoints damage the relationship between police and immigrants, some of the most vulnerable people in a community. The immigrants become wary of police and less likely to report crimes, Salas said. (E-mail Sarah Burge and Julissa McKinnon of the Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise at sburge(at)PE.com and jmckinnon(at)PE.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)