Border Patrol apprehensions totaled less than two a day in a vast area that includes Clallam and Jefferson counties for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
Blaine Sector Border Patrol agents, who cover Alaska, Oregon and the western half of Washington state, made 591 arrests in 12 months, the agency announced last week in its annual nationwide arrest report.
In July, Border Patrol Agent Christian Sanchez of Port Angeles told the not-for-profit Sunlight Foundation Advisory Committee on Transparency in Washington, D.C., that the Port Angeles Border Patrol station where he works is an overstaffed “black hole” with “no purpose, no mission.”
But Blaine Sector spokesman Jeffrey Jones said Wednesday the lower arrest totals for the Blaine Sector are “a testament to the increase in manpower, infrastructure and technology that the Border Patrol has deployed.”
The numbers, he said, are “a testament to the effectiveness of what we are doing,” adding that the report took three months to release “to make sure that the numbers were accurate and properly vetted.”
No specifics for Peninsula
The totals do not give specific figures for individual stations — such as the expanding one in Port Angeles, which covers the North Olympic Peninsula — to protect national security, the Border Patrol said.
The 2011 fiscal year totals are down 12 percent compared with 2010.
The numbers have plummeted 27 percent compared with fiscal year 2006, when four agents were stationed in Port Angeles.
Thirty-six agents are now stationed in Port Angeles, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks — a Belfair Democrat who represents the 6th Congressional District, which includes the Peninsula — said Sept. 17.
There are 331 agents in the entire Blaine Sector.
Border Patrol critic Lois Danks of Port Angeles said she saw the statistics as a testament to wasted money.
Danks, organizer of Stop the Checkpoints, which has demonstrated against and is opposed to the Border Patrol’s increased presence on the Peninsula, said more agents should equal more, not fewer, arrests.
Questions expense
“I question the expense of that many agents for that many apprehensions,” Danks said, adding that her group has about two dozen members who regularly attend meetings. “That kind of expense is way over the top to have that many agents and buy all that equipment and have all those stations.”
She also questioned the logic behind saying the increase in manpower has led to a decrease in apprehensions.
“It’s like that old joke,” Danks said. “A guy is snapping his fingers in New York to keep the tigers away, and his buddy says, ‘There aren’t any tigers in New York,’ and he says, ‘See, it works.’”
Danks attributed the lower number of apprehensions to fewer people wanting to come to the United States because of the bad economy.
Peninsula: Nothing changed
Border Patrol Supervisory Agent Mauricio Benitez, who is stationed in Port Angeles, said Wednesday he has not noticed a change in arrest numbers for Clallam and Jefferson counties.
“It’s just standard working procedures,” he said. “Nothing has changed.”
Of those apprehended in the Blaine Sector, 314 were of Mexican descent and 277 were from other countries.
Budget increase
The Border Patrol budget has jumped from $2.1 billion in 2006, when there were 12,349 agents nationwide, to $3.5 billion in 2011, when there are 21,444 agents nationwide.
The budget was $263 million in 2000, when there were 1.7 million apprehensions nationwide — eight times more arrests than in 2011.
Border Patrol arrests dropped 27 percent to 340,252 nationwide in 2011 compared with 2010 and included 327,577 arrests on the southwest border with Mexico, 6,552 on a coastal border that includes Miami and New Orleans, and 6,123 on the northern border with Canada.
Customs & Border Protection, the Border Patrol’s parent agency, is building a new $5.7 million headquarters for its North Olympic Peninsula contingent at 110 S. Penn St. in Port Angeles.
Large enough to house 50 agents, it will replace cramped quarters intended for four agents at the Richard B. Anderson Federal Building two miles west in the city’s downtown core.
The project, in which the former Eagles Aerie 483 is being renovated and added onto, is on schedule for completion April 26, Benitez said Wednesday, when more than a dozen workers were toiling outside the building.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
