Agent Named Chief of INS San Diego Unit

Veteran Border Patrol agent Dale Cozart will head the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s San Diego field office--the biggest and busiest in the United States--beginning in January, it was announced Friday.

Cozart, 46, will replace Chief Patrol Agent Alan Eliason, who is moving to El Paso to work on Operation Alliance, an effort by several U.S. law enforcement agencies to stem the flow of illegal drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Eliason, 53, a 28-year Border Patrol veteran, directed the INS San Diego office for 2 1/2 years.

An INS biography of Cozart says he joined the Border Patrol in 1966 after serving five years as a Texas highway patrolman. Cozart is currently the chief patrol agent in Yuma and is expected to move to San Diego in early January.