PORT ANGELES — The U.S. Border Patrol’s “mission” on the North Olympic Peninsula will be the topic of a closed-door meeting in Seattle on Wednesday.
Staff members from the offices of U.S. Sens. Patty Murray, D-Bothell, and Maria Cantwell, D-Mountlake Terrace, and from U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks will meet with Border Patrol Blaine Sector Chief John Bates, Dicks said Saturday.
Dicks, a Democrat from Belfair whose 6th Congressional District includes Clallam and Jefferson counties, said he did not know what time the meeting will be or its location.
“I want them to explain their mission,” Dicks said in a 10-minute interview with the Peninsula Daily News about Border Patrol activities on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Clallam and Jefferson counties and the Border Patrol’s Pot Angeles station are part of the Blaine Sector.
“The purpose of the meeting is to tell me what they are accomplishing,” Dicks said.
“We want to make sure that what they are doing is relevant.
“I want better communication with people. “I want them to be more forthcoming when they talk to the media.”
Praise for Border Patrol
In Port Angeles on Saturday for the Elwha River dam-removal ceremonies, Dicks also praised the Border Patrol for stopping highway checkpoints and reducing the number of bus boardings.
“They are sensitive to the concerns of people here,” Dicks said.
Checkpoints began in August 2008 and ended a month later, in September.
Bus boardings began in late 2008, with Border Patrol officers twice a day checking the citizenship of passengers aboard buses operated by Olympic Bus Lines at the Discovery Bay stop between Port Angeles and Port Townsend.
The Border Patrol’s increase in staffing over the last five years and a decision to build a new, $5.7 million headquarters two miles east of downtown Port Angeles with a capacity of 50 agents has prompted demonstrations and numerous calls to Dicks’ office.
Dicks said he has no regrets about pressing for an increased Border Patrol presence along the United States’ northern border.
Thirty-six agents
That pressure helped result in what Dicks said was a staff of 36 agents presently in Port Angeles who cover Clallam and Jefferson counties.
“That does not sound to me to be excessive,” Dicks said, adding that’s enough for 12 agents for each 24-hour shift.
It’s a ninefold increase from four agents in 2006 and more than 10 percent of 322 agents in the Blaine Sector, which includes Alaska, Oregon and the western half of Washington.
The increase in staffing and activities on the North Olympic Peninsula resulted in calls of concern from constituents that are “absolutely” continuing, especially to Judith Morris, Dicks’ district representative in Port Angeles, Dicks said.
“Morris gets hit up here in our Port Angeles office,” he said.
A national spotlight was trained on those concerns July 29 when Border Patrol Agent Christian Sanchez told a government watchdog group the Port Angeles station was an overstaffed “ black hole,” with agents having little to do.
“The worst fraud on taxpayers is that we are getting paid overtime not to work,” he said.
Sanchez also testified that there were more than 40 agents who work out of the Port Angeles station, a number that is “still increasing.”
Dicks disputed that number and questioned Sanchez’s veracity.
Sanchez’s claims are under investigation by the federal government, and he and his lawyers have refused repeated requests for interviews.
“I wouldn’t put a lot of chips on what he said,” Dicks said.
“He lacks credibility. He wants to go back to the southern border.”
Sanchez has requested a transfer to the U.S. border with Mexico, where he served before transferring from San Diego to Port Angeles in 2009.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
