Taxi Firms Tell Drivers to Limit Service in South Bay

Several San Diego taxicab companies announced Monday that they will stop or limit their service to the South Bay because the Border Patrol has seized 15 cabs there in the last six months.

The cabs were confiscated for transporting illegal aliens, said a Border Patrol spokesman who charged that the illegal transporting is rampant among cab drivers in the area.

Yellow Cab and Diamond Cab companies, which have had a total of four cabs impounded by the Border Patrol, issued a new policy telling the drivers who lease their 340 cabs not to pick up fares south of Palomar Street in Chula Vista, said Bill Hilton, a spokesman for both companies.

American Cab owner Jimmie Sober told his 21 contractors that their daily lease rate would nearly double--from $30 to $59 per day--if they want to pick up fares in San Ysidro. Sober said he has had one cab confiscated.

Red Cab owner Bill Hedrick said he has had two cabs seized since January and that he has told drivers of his 18 cabs not to pick up fares within a mile of Main Street in Chula Vista, where several cabs have been confiscated.

“We can’t afford to lose any more cabs,” said Hilton of Yellow Cab.

“They (the Border Patrol) told me that my drivers should be able to recognize illegals and stay away from the areas where they congregate. They said any time a Latino has mud on his shoes and pant legs, we should be careful and stay away,” Hilton said. But, he said, the law prohibits drivers from discriminating on the basis of race or national origin.

Hilton and the other cab company officials said they will continue to drop off customers in the South Bay.

Ted Martin, manager of Co-Op Cab, which has had two cars confiscated, said he is not asking his 84 independent drivers to restrict the area where they work. But he added that the Border Patrol has put cab companies “between a rock and a hard place.”

“On the one hand, the city ordinance says we are not allowed to refuse a fare unless we see a threatening situation developing. On the other hand, we have been ordered to check the validity of the citizenship of our customers,” Martin said.

The cab company owners said the confiscations were unusual before this year and charged that the Border Patrol was unfairly harassing them.

But Gene Smithburg, spokesman for the San Diego sector of the Border Patrol, said agents always have checked taxis and confiscated them when it appeared the driver knowingly carried illegal aliens.

“There is no new policy,” Smithburg said. “It’s just rampant. The cab drivers are picking up these illegal aliens. Some drivers are involved in organized smuggling--picking them up and taking them to drop houses.”

Smithburg said 15 taxis have been impounded since Oct. 1, but he was unable to determine how many had been seized in the previous six months. He said back records did not separate cabs from other cars. He did not know why records are kept on cabs now.

Smithburg said the owners are up in arms because three cabs were seized last weekend.

“One night last weekend we stopped 12 cabs and 11 contained illegal aliens. Of those 12 cabs, we seized three of them. In those cases we were able to establish a smuggling violation of transporting illegals,” he said. Smithburg said he did not know whether charges are pending against any of the drivers.

Asked how the agents determine whether the driver knowingly engaged in illegal transportation, he said, “A lot of times the aliens admit that there was a prearranged meeting place, that the driver didn’t use a meter or was going to charge more than the meter.”

He said some of the cabs congregate in remote areas such as the Tijuana River bottom or cruise back and forth near trails that come out of the border brush, where they wouldn’t find “legitimate” fares.

Cab company owners said that if their vehicles are not back on the street within 30 days of the time they are removed, the cab’s operating license is returned to the city for redistribution. They said the process to get a car back often takes longer than that.

Smithburg said the Border Patrol has 72 hours after the seizure to decide whether to keep the car. If the car is held, the cab owner is notified by mail that his car has been seized.

The owner may go to the Border Patrol office personally to request the return of his car, petition in writing for it, or may pay $250 bond to transfer or appeal the case to federal court.

If the Border Patrol declines to return the car, or if the owner does not want to pay the fines to get it back, it is sold at a monthly auction in about six months.

Deputy City Atty. Rudolf Hradecky declined to say whether it was legal for the cab companies to refuse to serve certain areas of the city, but added, “it certainly raises questions with regard to their licensing status.”

He said he too believes some cab drivers are knowingly transporting illegal aliens.

“It is very hard to feel a cabbie is conducting a legitimate business in the middle of a field or on a deserted road. It goes beyond mere acceptance of a fare into conscious, deliberate assistance of illegals,” he said.

Hilton said it was “garbage” that the impounded cars were seized in remote areas. He said the last three Yellow cabs impounded were seized after they were sent by dispatchers in response to calls for a ride.

He said he put out a memo at the beginning of the month warning drivers not to engage in illegal transporting and telling them they would be financially liable for an impounded cab.

“If we have drivers involved in hauling aliens, we don’t want them here. I’d do anything to curb that,” he said.

Hilton said his company responded to about 400 calls in the South Bay area daily. “We’re going to lose a hell of a lot of money,” he said.