Border Patrol’s expansion stirs angst

SEATTLE – The note from U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan to the U.S. Border Patrol was short and to the point: Stop sending petty marijuana cases to his office.

“It is our long-standing policy to use limited federal resources to pursue the sophisticated criminal organizations who smuggle millions of dollars of drugs, guns and other contraband across our borders,” Sullivan wrote in November.

Sullivan’s note is one in a string of flare-ups as the Border Patrol expanded its influence and manpower here in recent months. The marijuana busts had come from inland roadblocks on state highways.

Sheriff’s offices, farmers and a U.S. Congressman have all made their opinion about the patrol’s increased presence known, and not all of it has been friendly.

The clashes cast light on the expanded power of the agency along the country’s northern border.

More than 1,100 agents have been added to the Canadian border since Sept. 11, 2001, four times its presence before the terrorist attacks. Hundreds more agents are to be hired next year.

Agents can set up roadblocks up to 100 miles from the border, board passenger buses, and patrol transportation hubs that are not near the border.

This authority, relatively new to the people of Washington, has stirred controversy.

“It’s the newness and the heightened presence of the Border Patrol that has brought this issue to the forefront,” said John Bates, the patrol’s chief for Western Washington. “We’ve been utilizing check points for more than 75 years. Obviously when you use a new tactic in the border, people are going to have questions, and rightfully so.”

Bates wants people to speak out if agents are rude at the checkpoints, one of the complaints he has heard. But the checkpoints aren’t going away, Bates said.

Advocates say intrusive operations – such as boarding passenger buses – are threatening civil liberties.

The American Civil Liberties Union has led the challenge of Border Patrol’s powers. They call the patrol’s 100-mile belt of jurisdiction a “Constitution-Free Zone” occupied by two-thirds of the country’s population.

“Our concern is not just what they’re doing now, but what this expanded interpretation of what they can do can expand into,” said Shankar Narayan, legislative director for Washington’s ACLU chapter.

Narayan said the ACLU expects to file a lawsuit challenging the roadblocks when it finds the right case.

There are no checkpoints in Eastern Washington and none are planned, though spokeswoman Danielle Suarez said the patrol reserves the right to set them up. Suarez said that Eastern Washington’s rugged terrain calls for different tactics.

The last checkpoint operated in Western Washington happened in October, although border agents are now patrolling bus terminals.

In Washington, small protests have also taken place in Port Angeles and Forks, two towns on the Olympic Peninsula that have seen an increased presence of border agents.

In 1999, Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian national who was convicted on multiple counts for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport around Jan. 1, 2000, was caught by custom agents with explosives in the trunk of his car when he drove off a ferry.

“Canada does have lax polices; there are dangerous people who have gotten into Canada,” said Ira Mehlman of the Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Democrat U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks has criticized agents for being too gruff, and said the agency should focus on protecting the coastlines.

Farmers say Border Patrol’s crackdown on illegal immigration is scaring away workers.

“We’re going to become a military zone, in effect, where the federal government has dozens of police on the street, stopping people at will,” said Eric Chester, of Port Townsend, Wash.