Disputed facility designed to ease traffic inspections

Agents began using the new facility Sunday night, inspecting three northbound lanes of traffic under a lighted, 105-by-115-foot canopy designed to withstand 100-mph winds and provide shelter from the sun. The white canopy is attached to a series of thick steel beams and has low concrete walls on both sides of the northbound lanes. It reaches 40-feet high in the center.

The opening of the interim checkpoint - about 25 1/2 miles north of the border between the Agua Linda and Chavez Siding exits - comes more than three years after a long-standing congressional requirement prohibiting stationary checkpoints in the agency's Tucson Sector was lifted with the retirement of Rep. Jim Kolbe.

Since December 2006, the agency had been operating a makeshift checkpoint at an underpass at kilometer post 42, north of Tubac. The new facility is about 1/2 mile south of that location.

The facility includes a paved third lane where agents can inspect traffic and pull over vehicles for secondary checks. There is a small modular building that is used for an office and a detention room. There are portable lights powered by generators north and south of the canopy.

"It's definitely a big deal," said Border Patrol spokesman Omar Candelaria. "The agents are protected from the elements, and the public benefits because we are to able to facilitate traffic more effectively, and we are able to do secondary inspections a lot safer."

MRM Construction of Phoenix built the checkpoint under a $1.54 million contract administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Work was completed on schedule within the 90-day window.

There has been staunch opposition to a permanent checkpoint among residents in the I-19 corridor. Opponents question the effectiveness of the stationary checkpoints, since there is no element of surprise, and they also worry that the strategy pushes smuggling activity into their neighborhoods.

A one-year evaluation of checkpoints by the investigative arm of Congress found that the agency's self-reported data were insufficient to determine if the inspection stations are efficient or effective. The Government Accountability Office report, released in September, also found that the agency overstated checkpoint results in the last two years for lack of management oversight, and inconsistent data-gathering and analysis.

But the report backed the importance of permanent checkpoints.

Border Patrol officials say checkpoints are a critical part of the agency's "defense-in-depth" strategy. The Tucson Sector - the busiest on the Southwest border for apprehensions of illegal immigrants, marijuana seizures and border deaths - is the only sector without a permanent checkpoint.

Agency officials call this facility an interim checkpoint because there are still plans to build a $25 million permanent one at the same I-19 location, Candelaria said. There is no timeline for that project.

Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com