SEATTLE — A lawsuit stemming from Border Patrol checkpoints set up on North Olympic Peninsula highways about six years ago has been tentatively settled, according to news reports Monday night.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Department of Justice reached a tentative settlement of a lawsuit over traffic stops by Border Patrol agents mainly on U.S. Highway 101 in search of illegal immigrants, The Seattle Times reported.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three plaintiffs, all West End residents.
Details of the settlement were not immediately available, and its adoption is awaiting final approval by the Justice Department, according to a status report filed in U.S. District Court last Friday. Justice’s decision is anticipated by Aug. 21, according to the document.
The lawsuit, proposed as a class action, was filed last year by attorneys from the ACLU of Washington, the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and the Seattle law firm of Perkins Coie.
It named as plaintiffs three U.S. citizens who claim they were targeted for traffic stops by Border Patrol agents as a pretense to check their immigration status.
The plaintiffs, as described when the suit was filed, included Jose Sanchez, a Forks resident who works as a correctional officer at Olympic Corrections Center; Ismael Ramos Contreras, a former student-body president at Forks High School; and Ernest Grimes, an African-American resident of Neah Bay who works as a correctional officer and part-time Neah Bay police officer.
The lawsuit alleged that such stops were routine and had been increasing since the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, added agents to the Port Angeles office in an effort to increase security on the northern border.
The highway checkpoints were mainly set up in 2008. None has been reported in recent years.
