U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks has requested that the head of the federal Department of Homeland Security review Border Patrol activity on the North Olympic Peninsula.
And a representative of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Freeland, on Wednesday collected information from officials in Jefferson and Clallam counties on the public’s response to increased Border Patrol activity.
Dicks, who represents the 6th District — which includes the North Olympic Peninsula — sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Feb. 9 asking her to review recent enforcement actions conducted by Border Patrol agents on the Peninsula.
The federal Border Patrol is underneath the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security.
In the letter, Dicks said that a series of vehicle checkpoints and bus boardings have raised local concerns about the Border Patrol’s priorities in the region as it carries out its primary mission of securing the U.S.-Canadian border.
“The national security value of this checkpoint strategy on public roads, inconveniencing hundreds of [legitimate U.S. citizen] motorists during each instance, is unclear to me and my constituents,” Dicks wrote.
Four to 24 agents
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.
Border Patrol roadblocks near Forks and the Hood Canal Bridge last summer and boardings of Olympic Bus Lines buses looking for illegal immigrants have prompted protests and demonstrations in Forks, Port Angeles, Sequim and Port Townsend.
“[Border Patrol] agents have adopted an even more aggressive strategy of performing ad hoc traffic stops, making individual arrests,” Dicks said in his letter.
“While I understand that the Border Patrol mission includes coordination with local law enforcement on border control issues, I have serious questions about the agency’s direct authority to stop individual automobiles and detain, in some cases, legal residents of the United States until they are able to prove their status.”
Dicks said he was disturbed by reports of Border Patrol agents boarding local buses and primarily questioning riders about their citizenship.
“I would appreciate your personal attention to the question of whether these activities are the appropriate and best use of the limited resources available to your department as it confronts the myriad of serious threats to the security of our homeland,” he said.
Murray’s office
On Wednesday, Kristiné M. Reeves, Murray’s representative for the Olympic Peninsula region, visited Jefferson County officials and the Clallam County sheriff to gauge public sentiment regarding the Border Patrol.
A spokesman for the senator’s office, Matt McAlvanah, said that the meetings mostly served as a way of listening to community concerns.
“This was part of our regular outreach to the people,” McAlvanah said.
“Of course this is a big issue in the area, and this is part of the senator’s effort to get information about it.”
Reeves spoke with law enforcement, elected officials and interested citizens, McAlvanah said.
“It’s an effort to talk to the right people in the area,” he said. “We want to talk to all the interested parties.”
The senator’s office confirmed that Reeves spoke with Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Brasfield, Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict, Port Townsend Police Chief Conner Daily, Jefferson County Commissioner John Austin and Port Townsend Mayor Michelle Sandoval.
Sandoval said that Reeves didn’t make any promises, but did listen and take notes.
“They want to know what I’m hearing from the community,” Sandoval said.
“She told me that the senator doesn’t want to just jump at a solution to the situation.
“They want to sit down and thoughtfully think about it first. We are just fine with that.”
Sandoval said she shared concerns about the checkpoints, possible racial profiling and search and seizures by the Border Patrol.
“I said we have great respect for the Border Patrol and their agents,” she said, “But we think our federal representatives should look at the policy — just like Sen. Dicks is asking in his letter to Napolitano.”
Sandoval pointed out that city officials have no authority over the operations of the federal Border Patrol.
“However, we are the conduit, the voice of the people, and what we hear from our people we need to express to our representatives,” she said.
Law enforcement
Reeves also was interested in the relationship between local law enforcement and the Border Patrol.
Sheriff Brasfield, who declined the opportunity to apply for federal monies being offered from the Department of Homeland Security through the Border Patrol because he could not agree to the terms, said he told Reeves exactly what he has said before.
“I assured the senator’s representative that we have a positive working relationship on matters other than policy,” Brasfield said.
“They wanted to get the general understanding from our perspective.
“They didn’t offer any commitments or strategy, just that Senator Murray is interested, and specifically in port security.”
Brasfield said that he said that if there were anything he would want to change, it would be to add security at the ports and the Jefferson County International Airport.
“We currently do not have a federal presence there,” he said.
“With the Border Patrol’s main goal to stop entry, and then not to have a full time presense at ports, marinas or the airport does not make any sense to me professionally.
“They say checkpoints are an interim, stop-gap measure, but they could do the port of entry security immediately and yet they’ve declined to do that.”
Clallam County Sheriff Benedict, who has applied for the Operation Stonegarden funds that Brasfeld declined, also met with Reeves.
“We talked about the concerns of the Border Patrol in the community and we talked about our philosophies on law enforcement,” Benedict said.
“What I told her was I support their mission, and support them as law enforcement officers, but we need an evidenced-based approach to how many Border Patrol agents we need out here.
“We need to decide what we want to accomplish and how we want to accomplish it.”
Questions effectiveness
Benedict said he told the representative that he wasn’t convinced that the current tactics of the Border Patrol were the most effective available.
“I’m not real sure checkpoints are very effective,” he said.
“I’m not sure having a bunch of marked Border Patrol cars on our roads is going to protect anything either.
“I don’t want this to be an inflamatory issue between me and the Border Patrol, but I said that the first line of defense for protecting this country is local law enforcement.
“I think that maybe before we militarize this border and antagonize our neighbors we should look at helping our local law enforcement do their jobs.”
Brasfield said earlier this month that he feels that Operation Stonegarden would require his agency to work too closely with Border Patrol agents, and objected to the language in the application that “said illegal aliens were here to engage in illegal activities, and another section that identified us as friendly forces.”
Benedict said he had no problem with the language in the document, and didn’t see the federal grant changing the status quo in Clallam County in any way.
As the primary federal law enforcement agency between the ports-of-entry, the Border Patrol’s mission is to prevent the entry of terrorists and weapons of terrorism and to detect and apprehend those who attempt to illegally enter or smuggle any person or contraband across the borders.
McAlvanah said that Sen. Murray’s office would continue to discuss the Border Patrol situation with people in the area and may possibly address the issue in the future.
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Jefferson County reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
