Border Patrol crackdown on West End pleases some, disturbs some in Forks
Richard Chesmore, owner of Cafe Paix -- Peace Cafe -- in Forks says many immigrants are "afraid to move around" in the wake of an increased Border Patrol presence on the West End. -- Photo by Diane Urbani de la Paz/Peninsula Daily News
By Diane Urbani de la Paz, Peninsula Daily News
Print This |
Email This
Recent Headlines
Port Angeles to stay in FEMA fight -- 2/7/12 -10:52 PM
Port Angeles City Council approves final esplanade plan -- 2/7/12 -10:42 PM
(No heading) -- 2/7/12 -10:32 PM
SPORTS: Webb sparks Sequim to 58-51 win over Port Angeles for second place in boys basketball action Tuesday night -- 2/7/12 -10:22 PM
MV Coho ferry back on the job today after maintenance hiatus -- 2/7/12 -05:42 PM
There's the Tienda Latina grocery store, packed with Boing! fruit drinks from Mexico, sweet Mexican cakes, hot chiles from Los Angeles and a row of rose-colored and royal-blue guitars.
Across the street is J.T. Sweet Stuffs, a popular hangout for Forks High School students and men who work in the woods.
Tucked in between is Cafe Paix and A Work in Progress, an espresso bar and antique-consignment shop run by Richard Chesmore.
"I'm only a pilgrim. Been here just 18 years," Chesmore said.
In his cafe, people are talking about the thing that has reverberated across the Forks area.
The U.S. Border Patrol has intensified its presence around Forks, setting up a checkpoint north on U.S. Highway 101 and deploying larger numbers of agents across the West End.
It's part of increased enforcement of immigration laws on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Border Patrol agents also staffed a checkpoint on state Highway 104 near the Hood Canal Bridge on Aug. 22, and Joseph Giuliano, deputy chief Border Patrol agent, said a third location eyed for a checkpoint is on Highway 101 south of Discovery Bay.
Their mission, Border Patrol spokesman Michael Bermudez said, is to apprehend terrorists, drug traffickers and illegal immigrants.
Late last month, two Forks teenagers were caught by the Border Patrol: 16-year-old Carlos Bernabe and Edgar Ayala, 19. Both have agreed to be voluntarily deported to Mexico.
Others have been detained since.
Chesmore, meanwhile, has heard from men who've gone out of state to work and are afraid to return to Forks, and from a musician who planned dances at the Rainforest Art Center, but canceled because he doesn't think there'll be much of a turnout among Hispanics.
'Afraid to move around'
"People are afraid to move around," Chesmore said.
"It's not just Latinos who are wringing their hands over this. A lot of Anglos are as well."
At JT Sweet Stuffs, other Forks residents weren't shy about sharing their opinions on the Border Patrol presence.
"In some ways I like it — if they take the criminals, the drug dealers. That will make our town better," said Katelynn Kerschner, a Forks High School sophomore.
"But they're taking away the good ones, like Edgar [Ayala]. He was a good kid. He graduated. He had a good job."
Ayala was "like a brother" to Kerschner.
In a nearby booth were two retired loggers who've been in Forks for better than 50 years.
"There's a lot of good people in that bunch, and some bad ones," Carroll Koenke said of the illegal immigrants who've come to Forks after sneaking across the border thousands of miles south.
"A lot of the good ones do work no one else will do," Koenke said.
"They have contributed to the economy," added Ted Spoelstra, who's worked in Forks since 1947.
He agreed that immigrants take on tough work in the woods and mills.
But Koenke wonders how much of the immigrants' earnings leave the country in the form of remittances to families back in Mexico.
And while he acknowledged that everyone pays sales tax, he worries that illegal workers aren't contributing to Social Security, which people like him depend on.
"Should become citizens"
"They're here illegally. If they stay here, they should become citizens," Koenke said.
"I have no problem with these roadblocks," he added, since they may help Border Patrol agents apprehend fugitives.
Chesmore, however, does not consider undocumented immigrants to be criminals.
"In this community, they have found a niche," he said, adding that he's had Mexican friends for many years.
Forks Mayor Nedra Reed looks to the nation's leaders to make a long-needed overhaul of immigration laws.
"Our federal government and our Congress have got to do something," Reed has said.
"We need a federal immigration policy . . . We hired [Congress] to make the tough decisions."
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: September 06. 2008 9:00PM