Ruling Possible Today on Temecula Border Patrol Suit

A federal judge in Santa Ana is expected to rule today or Thursday on a request by the city of Temecula that the U.S. Border Patrol immediately halt high-speed chases through the city until its pursuit policy is rewritten to conform with state law.

The request that the Border Patrol be immediately restrained from engaging in high-speed pursuits was filed Monday with U.S. District Judge Alicemarie Stotler. Her clerk said a decision would not come before late this afternoon, and not until after the Immigration and Naturalization Service has had a chance to respond to Temecula’s arguments.

The legal action was sparked by a Border Patrol chase June 2 that left six people--a parent, four students and an illegal immigrant--dead after the chased car crashed into a passenger sedan, struck two pedestrians and overturned in front of Temecula Valley High School.

The application for the temporary restraining order echoes a complaint filed Friday, when the city asked that the Border Patrol be banned from high-speed pursuits through the city because the agency’s chase policy is unreasonable, too vague to protect city residents and not in conformance with state governing high-speed pursuits.

In Monday’s legal papers, Temecula officials asked that the Border Patrol be immediately banned from speeding through their city until Stotler rules on the larger issue of whether the Border Patrol’s pursuit policy is unreasonable.

In support of the request, Temecula Police Chief Rick Sayre said the pursuing Border Patrol vehicle was still chasing the immigrants, even though its lights and siren had failed, it had passed an elementary school before the crash and was only 528 feet behind the immigrants’ car when the crash occurred.

At no time, Sayre complained, did the Border Patrol seek the assistance of his officers.

The lawsuit noted that the city faces about $33,000 in direct costs as a result of the crash; that 45 nurses, counselors and psychologists met with more than 600 students and teachers at Temecula Valley High School, and that a third of the city’s police officers needed counseling because of the enormity of the incident.