DISCOVERY BAY — About 50 people at the intersection of U.S. 101 and state Highway 20 carried signs on Saturday afternoon protesting stepped-up Border Patrol activity on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Standing next to them were two Port Angeles residents with a different opinion.
Cliff Fors and Davi Parrish displayed a sign thanking the federal Border Patrol, which has as its mission the protection of the country’s borders through preventing the entry of terrorists and through enforcing immigration laws.
“I came today because I felt like only one side is out here representing their views,” Fors said.
“And I’ve got to give them a hand because they are out here doing it.”
Stop the Checkpoints, based in Port Angeles, organized the demonstration to protest Border Patrol agents boarding Olympic Bus Lines buses to check riders’ citizenship.
The group gathered at an Olympic Bus Lines stop where Border Patrol agents have been known to board. Demonstrators were there for the 2:15 p.m. bus. No Border Patrol agents were in attendance.
That didn’t matter, said Lois Danks, Stop the Checkpoints coordinator. The intent was to get the message out.
“Wherever they are at, we’re going to be there to defend them,” Danks said.
“We’re kind of a roving group who are looking out for immigrants’ rights.”
In addition to boarding buses to check citizenship, the Border Patrol conducted roadblocks, called checkpoints, near Forks and the Hood Canal Bridge last summer, in which drivers were stopped and asked about their citizenship.
Fors said he has been stopped by Border Patrol agents at checkpoints, and described the agents’ actions as “very professional.”
“I plan to be out more to represent the other side,” he said.
Protests since summer
Demonstrators have protested the build-up of Border Patrol agents in Forks, Port Angeles, Sequim and Port Townsend since the summer.
As part of a build-up of immigration law enforcement on the country’s northern border, Border Patrol agents based in Port Angeles have increased from four to 24 during the last two years, and the federal Department of Homeland Security has announced plans to build a facility with a short-term detention area in Port Angeles this year.
“We hear how our troops are fighting to protect our freedom overseas,” said Alex Hepler, a Port Hadlock resident and Marine Corps veteran, who joined the Border Patrol protest Saturday.
“So I think we should have the right to act on that freedom and protest these actions here.”
Hepler said that he attended a Border Patrol forum in Chimacum last fall and heard that the agency works to stop terrorism.
“They say that, but what does arresting immigrants or people with medical marijuana have to do with that?” he said.
The Border Patrol cited a Brinnon resident in August for carrying less than an ounce of marijuana at a roadblock near the Hood Canal Bridge. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said it will not prosecute misdemeanor drug possession cases filed by Border Patrol agents. Such cases were too small for federal court, it said.
Stop the Checkpoints, which organized its first protests last year, had protests in Sequim on Jan. 31 and Feb. 7 after the Border Patrol on Jan. 30 detained two Sequim men.
Jose Antonio Hernandez, a immigrant from Mexico who has held permanent resident status since 2000, did not have his green card with him when he was stopped.
Daniel Rodriguez was in the country illegally.
The Border Patrol arrested Hernandez, because he had been convicted of either an aggravated felony or a crime of moral turpitude, which qualifies him for deportation, Border Patrol Spokesman Michael Bermudez said.
Federal officials released Hernandez, 28, from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Tacoma, but ICE officials were investigating whether his criminal record qualified as violations of conditions placed on him as a permanent resident.
Hernandez was once convicted of reckless endangerment, which might qualify as an aggravated felony, and possession of a drug without a prescription in 2003, said Lorie Dankers, spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Danks said Hernandez had not been told of a change in his status as of Saturday.
“We have been in contact with him and he’s involved, but right now he’s waiting,” Danks said.
“He’s not coming [to the protests] because he wants to find out what’s going to happen to him first.”
Rodriguez, 18, a Mexican national, was determined by the Border Patrol to be in the United States illegally, Bermudez said.
Danks said he remains in the Tacoma detention center as of Saturday pending a deportation hearing.
“He’s still there and no date has been set for his hearing,” she said.
“We’re all writing letters to request that they schedule that hearing as soon as possible.”
On Saturday, Fors said he spoke with those opposed to the Border Patrol and told them he would be standing beside them with a sign of support for the federal agency.
“They’ve all been very nice,” he said. “They don’t understand my views and I don’t understand theirs, but that’s fine.
“It seems that they’re talking about civil liberties, but really they want open borders.
“If that’s the case, then they need to be talking about immigration policy.”
Stop the Checkpoints is planning a Women’s Day march on March 7 in Sequim. For more information, phone 360-452-7534.
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Jefferson County reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
