San Diego Border Patrol is spending $28.7 million on a new vehicle maintenance facility for its station off of Interstate 15 in Murrieta.

Sector Chief Justin De La Torre said the funding is coming from the “Big Beautiful Bill” that passed last year. He said most Border Patrol stations have their own attached vehicle maintenance facilities both to service their cars and to take apart cars suspected of having smuggling compartments.

The Newton-Azrak Station is the only one in the sector that doesn’t yet have its own mechanic area, De La Torre said. Agents working there have to take the agency’s cars and SUVs to a commercial mechanic. De La Torre said that uses up agent gas and time.

“This facility is going to help us do something fundamental,” De La Torre said at a press conference in the station’s parking lot on Friday. “It’s going to keep our vehicles safe. It’s going to keep our fleet ready and available for our agents. It provides a dedicated facility on site with a fuel station, a wash rack, and it gives us the ability to thoroughly inspect narcotics smuggling vehicles that have hidden compartments that are difficult to disassemble.”

Near the I-15 checkpoint, the station currently has about 70 agents working out of it, but the agency is hoping that new hires will boost that number to about 100. The station also has 101 vehicles that have driven over 1.15 million miles so far in fiscal 2026, according to the agency.

De La Torre said the agents there specialize in identifying and detaining cars suspected of having narcotics hidden deep inside them.

He said agents can detain drivers for a short period of time based on “reasonable suspicion” while the agents search cars for hidden drug compartments, but agents need a higher level of evidence, “probable cause,” to make an arrest.

“Once we pull a vehicle over on the side of the road, we may know that there’s narcotics inside the vehicle,” the sector chief said. “However, getting to those narcotics requires disassembling difficult components within that vehicle.”

He said having a facility at the station where mechanics can take those cars apart will save time in making the assessment for probable cause.

“Time is of the essence to find drugs to make an arrest,” De La Torre said.

At Friday’s press briefing, agents had set up sketches of three possible looks for the new vehicle facility, all branded with The Haskell Company. According to a federal database, the Jacksonville, Florida-based contractor has received $23 million for the project. The company also appears to have two contracts awarded to do work for the Department of Defense in San Diego as well as projects elsewhere in the country.

De La Torre said the Border Patrol station construction project will also improve the station’s emergency power system, and that he’s hoping to upgrade the vehicles that his agents are using as well.

“The fleet is far beyond its intended and expected lifecycle,” De La Torre said.

The project is currently slated for completion in August 2028.

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In Other News

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Denied bond: Among the recent arrests, that of a City College student has caused particular concern. An immigration judge recently denied bond for the man, who is originally from Haiti, Carly Kay reported for KPBS.

Fake attorney: The State Bar of California is alleging that a Chula Vista man worked as an immigration attorney even though he did not have a license to practice law, Alex Riggins reported for The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Kids in custody: Sofía Mejías-Pascoe reported for inewsource that children are spending weeks in Border Patrol custody even though the agency is only allowed to hold them for up to 72 hours in its cells.

Prosecutorial error: While the Trump administration has criticized a federal judge for ordering the Department of Homeland Security to release a man held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody who is facing a murder charge in his home country, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego admitted that they had mistakenly withheld that information from the judge before she made her decision, Riggins reported for The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Teen pregnancy: Melina Flores González reported for El Sol de Tijuana that the number of pregnant teens in Tijuana has dropped but that young mothers are still facing many barriers to living stable lives.

Detention license: San Diego County is threatening to take away professional licenses from Otay Mesa Detention Center after the facility delayed reporting a tuberculosis case by nearly three weeks, City News Service reported via KPBS.

Motorcycle crossing: The San Ysidro Port of Entry now has a dedicated motorcycle lane for crossing north, Alexandra Mendoza reported for The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Home births: People who choose to give birth at home in Tijuana are struggling to get their newborns registered, Adelina Dayebi Pazos reported for El Sol de Tijuana.

Bike donations: A nonprofit is helping bicycles used at Burning Man reach people who need mobility assistance in Mexico via the San Diego-Tijuana border crossing, Mendoza reported for The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Border mural: To observe the International Day of Peace, artists painted a new mural on the border wall in Tijuana, Rosario Mosso Castro reported for ZETA.