Controlled entry to San Pedro news conference restricts student access

By Kathleen Rivas

December 12, 2008

Students without press credentials were turned away from a U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement news conference Thursday at the Port of Los Angeles Berth 87 in San Pedro. A
security official said only invited parties and reporters with pre-arranged press credentials were
allowed entry.

"You're not the first student who's had this happened to today," said the security guard.
"Someone from Cal State [Long Beach] also came and some other ones. I'm sorry for the
inconvenience."

A phone call was made to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Public Affairs
Department to verify that the event was an open news conference. Later, an officer called back
with a more detailed outline of the department's policy.

"That was incorrect information," said Lori Haley, public affairs officer for U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement. "It's not a town meeting. You just can't have people just coming in
who you don't know."

"Normally, our press conferences are for credentialed media, but I suppose if there's something
that students need we can try and work something out," said Haley.

Teresa Adams Lopez, media director for the Port of Los Angeles, attributes the heightened
security precautions to the news conference's proximity to the seaport where cocaine was
reportedly found in a ship that was on its way to Australia.

"There were law enforcement folks there with repossessed guns and were probably overactive in
keeping people out," said Lopez. "There was no intended discrimination against students."

Although the conference was held in a parking lot, it certainly wasn't an easily accessible one. A
chain-link fence enclosed the parking lot along the seaport and the only way in was with the go-
ahead from the aforementioned security guard.

Railroads, big rigs, terminals and shipping containers surrounded the small gathering of press
and law enforcement officers. From a distance, it was noticeably a tightly controlled conference,
considering the select few who were in attendance listening to Robert A. Schoch, special agent in
charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to a press release, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arranged the news
conference in which Schoch announced the formation of a multi-agency task force to combat
smuggling at the Los Angeles and Long Beach seaports. A DVD was reportedly distributed that
shows the task force conducting preliminary operations, including still photos of seized
contraband.

The release also tells of a major case that prompted the initiation of the multi-agency task force.

Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers discovered more than 140 pounds of
cocaine concealed inside concrete cylinders being shipped from Mexico through the Port of Los
Angeles to Australia. Investigators estimate the drug would have sold for as much as $16 million
on the streets of Australia.

"We want you to know, though, that it's $16 million in Australia, not here," Lopez clarified. "The
press release doesn't make that very clear."

The multi-agency task force is modeled after the Border Environment Security Task Forces,
which enforces the surveillance of smuggling and other criminal activity along key corridors
along the border. It will be the first task force unit of its kind to be launched at a seaport.