Border braces for |
teen drinkers |
... |
Jo Moreland |
| Staff writer |
|
| SAN DIEGO – People on both sides of the border are
trying to deter teens from drinking during the holiday weekend. Parents will have to pick up children under age 18 who are caught trying to
return at the border if they’ve been drinking, San Diego police Capt. Adolfo Gonzales
said Thursday.
"I’m hoping the North County parents are vigilant
with their kids and know where they are during the three-day weekend," he said.
Gonzalez said one North County mother actually
thanked him for detaining her 17-year-old daughter, who had been drinking in Mexico during
an earlier holiday. |
|
"The mother thought she
(the daughter) was somewhere else," said the police captain.
There will be a sobriety checkpoint today and Saturday at
the San Ysidro entry, and Operation Safe Crossing will again be in effect there during the
holiday.
Operation Safe Crossing is a law enforcement effort by both
countries to police underage-drinking laws and deter binge drinking in Mexico, where the
legal drinking age is 18.
There will be parking lots and free coffee for designated
drivers. Several Tijuana nightclubs will provide free nonalcoholic beverages to designated
drivers with stamped hands.
Anyone under age 18 won’t be allowed to cross into
Mexico |
unless they have a parent,
guardian, or notarized permission letter.
The efforts to discourage young drinkers at the border might
be having an effect, Gonzalez noted.
A total of 11,438 pedestrians crossed back into the United
States between midnight and 6 a.m. Saturday last year during the Memorial Day weekend, he
said. During the 1997 weekend, there were 14,950.
"But we only turned away 50 (teens trying to enter
Mexico) in 1997," said Gonzalez. "Last year we had 286 turned back." |