Curbs on road checkpoints lift illegal immigrants' fears

Escondido resident Delfino Aldama was fixing a customer's brakes this month when his smartphone chimed with a text message that tipped him to a police checkpoint more than an hour before officers began ­stopping ­motorists.





"A car is a necessity. It's not a luxury," said Aldama, 32, who lives in Escondido with his wife, who is a legal resident, and their 5-year-old son, a U.S. citizen.


The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration paid for 2,553 checkpoints last year, which authorities say helps explain why deaths caused by drunken drivers hit an all-time low in the state.

Police also ask for drivers' licenses at the sobriety checkpoints. Supporters of the vehicle impounds say unlicensed drivers are also a roadside hazard and that the new law is misguided.

"It's a terrible law, really dis­appointing," said Jim Maher, who sharply expanded checkpoints in Escondido after being named police chief in 2006.

A sharp increase in federally funded sobriety checkpoints in California has fueled controversy.

In July, protesters opposing the impounding of cars turned out at a police checkpoint in Oxnard.

At the time, Francisco Romero, a member of Todo Poder al Pueblo Collective, said, "These are low-­income workers who need a vehicle to get back and forth to work."

In a news release at the time, the group stated:

"Since 2009, we have seen a sharp increase in DUI checkpoints that have become less about checking for drunken drivers and more about the impounding of vehicles of unlicensed drivers."

The protesters gathered with the intention of warning drivers about the checkpoint so they could take a side street and avoid officers. Police at the time said the checkpoints were designed primarily to target drunken drivers.

In Ventura County, David Rod­riguez, an immediate past president of the far west region for the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the organization is happy with the new law. He said the cars being impounded also are used to pick up children from school.

He said it's not unusual to have three or four people pile into a car and drive to work in agricultural fields, noting that agriculture is a billon-dollar industry in Ventura County that needs laborers to pick up the crops. Rodriguez said Ventura County's economy depends on the agriculture industry, which creates retail and other jobs in addition to farming work.

Critics who want to "toil in the field for hours in all kinds of weather" should go out there and do these jobs that few people are willing take, Rodriguez said.

He said LULAC and other groups worked with former Oxnard Police Chief John Crombach to keep police from impounding vehicles from unlicensed drivers.

While other cities just outside Los Angeles use the impounding of vehicles from illegal immigrants as a revenue-generating tactic, Rod­riguez said Oxnard wasn't doing it to raise money for the city coffers. However, Rodriguez said Oxnard at one time impounded 15 to 20 vehicles a month.

All but three U.S. states — New Mexico, Utah and Washington — deny driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, but controversy over checkpoints has been strongest in California. Cedillo believes that's because a 1995 state law has allowed police to impound vehicles from unlicensed drivers for 30 days, resulting in fees that can easily top $1,000.

Towing practices vary widely across the state. San Francisco allows 20 minutes to find a licensed driver to claim a vehicle at a checkpoint. The Los Angeles Police Department eased rules on 30-day impounds in March.

Escondido, a city of 144,000 people near San Diego, has seen its Latino population surge in the last 30 years, and the issue of the impounds has divided the city.

"It was kind of like letting them steal cars," said Olga Diaz, the only Hispanic on the City Council.

Websites that have sprung up in the last two years quickly alert motorists to checkpoints through social media networks and smartphones, severely undermining their effectiveness.

A few years ago, Escondido police impounded 50 or 60 vehicles a night. Now they typically get about 20.

One of the final checkpoints before the new law takes effect was one of the slowest in memory for many of the 15 officers who stood under bright lights and encountered a December chill. Activists waved signs several blocks away, giving motorist an opportunity to turn away. Police impounded six vehicles — three for driving without a license and three for driving under the influence.

Aldama, who paid a smuggler $1,300 to lead him through the mountains east of San Diego on a weeklong trek 13 years ago, was able to reach all his friends before the checkpoint began. One he didn't call had his 1997 Ford Explorer towed at an Escondido checkpoint a few weeks earlier. The unemployed construction worker surrendered the SUV to the towing company because he couldn't afford the fees.

Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat and Star staff writer Raul Hernandez contributed to this report.