PORT ANGELES — The U.S. Border Patrol agent who said in the nation’s capital in July that “there’s nothing to do” for agents on the North Olympic Peninsula has reportedly put in for a transfer.
In a nationally broadcast and posted report by CNN [ http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/09/05/border.patrol.wasteful.spending/ ] on Labor Day, a lawyer for agent Christian Sanchez said Sanchez requested a transfer back to the U.S. border with Mexico, where he served before transfer to Port Angeles in 2009.
His attorney, Tom Devine of the Government Accountability Project, which specializes in whistle-blower cases, told CNN that Sanchez feared more reprisals like the kind he said took place after he began criticizing the Port Angeles station.
Sanchez told the not-for-profit Sunlight Foundation Advisory Group on Transparency in Washington, D.C., on July 29 that he never intended to become a whistle-blower, but decided to speak out publicly after he felt his complaints about the Port Angeles station’s “lack of mission” were being brushed aside by supervisors.
He said the Port Angeles station is a “black hole” where agents have “no purpose, no mission,” yet are told to work overtime to simply justify its expanding budget.
Spokesmen for the Blaine Sector of the Border Patrol and the Port Angeles detachment have declined comment because the issue is under investigation, they said.
But Henry Rolon, Blaine Sector deputy chief, rejected Sanchez’s statements that Port Angeles agents are “bored” and “without a mission,” CNN reported.
“Agents in Port Angeles have a very important mission, and there’s lots to do,” Rolon said.
“You have to go out there, you have to patrol within the community, on the border. Otherwise you are not going to be there when an incident occurs.”
To read Christian Sanchez’s statement in its entirety: http://tinyurl.com/pdnborder1
COMMENT ON THIS STORY HAS BEEN SUSPENDED BECAUSE OF ABUSE OF PRIVILEGE.
