Pubdate: Tue, 26 Dec 2000
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2000 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190
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RACIAL PROFILING CONCERNS EXTEND TO BORDER PATROL CHECKPOINTS

TEMECULA -- As thousands of commuters and holiday travelers funnel through 
the Temecula Border Patrol checkpoint, agents watching for drug smugglers 
and illegal immigrants have mere seconds to decide whether motorists merit 
a more thorough inspection.

Driver too jumpy? Suspicious-looking suspension, too low to the ground or 
jacked up to hide a heavy load?

Agents have developed personalized lists of red flags. But their bag of 
tricks does not include racial profiling, border officials say. Patrol 
policy, backed by recent court judgments, prohibits agents from targeting 
drivers who "look Hispanic."

Inland-area Latinos give the Interstate 15 checkpoint mixed reviews.

But Sherry Feltner-Redondo, patrol agent in charge of the Temecula station, 
said Friday her officers ignore ethnicity when deciding whether to divert 
drivers into the secondary inspection and interview area.

"The No. 1 complaint I deal with is, `Why did you pull me over? I'm not 
Hispanic, I don't look Hispanic,' " said Feltner-Redondo, whose husband is 
a Latino Border Patrol agent.

Agents look for things out of the ordinary.

Checkpoints are vital to catching dangerous drug and immigrant smugglers, 
well worth the traffic delays, said Raul-Mark Yarbrough, the Latino mayor 
pro tem of Perris and a car dealer.

Though agents cannot use ethnic categories to target motorists, they can 
use "foreign appearance" as a partial reason for closer inspection, said 
Nicole Chulick, a Washington, D.C., spokeswoman for the Immigration and 
Naturalization Service.

But judging by appearances can perpetuate stereotypes about Mexicans, 
dark-skinned U.S.-born Latinos, people wearing backward baseball caps or 
Western jeans and shirts, argued Enrique Lopez, a professor of ethnic 
studies at California State University-San Bernardino.
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