[R-G] As US Border Patrol expands on the nothern border, so do questions about its authority

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-border-friction,1,2559898.story
As US Border Patrol expands on the nothern border, so do questions  
about its authority
By MANUEL VALDES
Associated Press Writer

3:08 AM PST, December 22, 2008

SEATTLE (AP) — 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 road blocks 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 road blocks up to 100 miles from the border, board  
passenger buses, and patrol transportation hubs that are not near the  
border. Elsewhere, the Border Patrol, which is part of the U.S.  
Department of Homeland Security, has set up road blocks in other  
northern states, including Vermont, New York and Maine.

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 the western half of Washington. "We've been  
utilizing checkpoints 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 complaints he has heard. But the checkpoints aren't going away,  
said Bates, who calls them an integral part of the agency's security  
strategy.

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.  
"They can eventually claim a range of authority away from the border,  
who can say where that stops?"

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

There are no checkpoints in largely rural 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 Vermont, the Border Patrol reinstated a traffic checkpoint 97 miles  
from the Canadian border on an interstate in 2007. The checkpoint has  
drawn criticism from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, who questioned its  
effectiveness. The Border Patrol, however, also provides manpower and  
technical aid to local police in the region.

In Washington, small protests have also taken place in the towns of  
Port Angeles and Forks, two towns on the Olympic Peninsula that have  
seen an increased presence of border agents. The peninsula can only be  
reached from Canada by ferry.

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. "They have these  
checkpoints in close proximity to the southern border, and there's no  
reason why they can't have them in the northern border."

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.

Bates argues that border agents are trying to protect a challenging,  
porous and busy border. Cocaine being smuggled north from Mexico, and  
marijuana from Canada are some of the drugs traffickers carry in this  
corridor, Bates said.

Bates also said the agency will likely refer petty drug cases to local  
prosecutors, instead of Sullivan's office.

The patrol also opposes the use of the term "road blocks," saying that  
"checkpoints are not designed to block the entry of vehicles into an  
area," spokesman Michael Bermudez said.

The checkpoints, Bates says, provide a last line of defense.

"There's a learning curve for us with the community, we need to keep  
those lines of communications open," Bate said. "Some of those  
questions will keep coming up, until people are used to the Border  
Patrol."

___

Associated Press Writer Wilson Ring in Vermont contributed to this  
report.

___

On the Net:

U.S. Border Patrol, http://cbp.gov/

American Civil Liberties Union-Washington state, http://www.aclu-wa.org/