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View Full Version : Rep. Norm Dicks wants review of Border Patrol




FreedomFighter8008
02-13-2009, 05:58 PM
http://www.komonews.com/news/39579867.html




By Erik Hidle, Peninsula Daily News

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.

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.

On Wednesday, Kristina 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."

This is a condensed version of a story in the Peninsula Daily News, a media partner of KOMO News. Read the complete Daily news story.