FORKS — Federal agents’ arrests of about eight undocumented immigrants last week had nothing to do with a May Day march in Forks over U.S. immigration policy, say Mayor Nedra Reed and the U.S. Forest Service officer who started the chain of events.
Officer Kristine Fairbanks said last Wednesday’s action by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents came in response to a “turf war” among salal harvesters that had started weeks earlier.
“I would agree that the timing was bad,” Fairbanks said Sunday about the arrests that came only two days after an estimated 600 to 700 Latinos marched in Forks to protest U.S. immigration policy.
The May Day march was part of a “Day Without Immigrants’ in which about 1 million Latinos participated in rallies in cities throughout the nation.
The salal harvest runs from January through May.
Harvesters must hold permits that allow them to pick within designated areas the evergreen ground cover that is used in floral arrangements.
The Forest Service permits cost $150 and are good for three months.
“We have more pickers out there than we have product,” Fairbanks said, so the Forest Service has had to reduce the number of permits it issues.
That hasn’t entirely solved the problem.
“We’ve probably have 150 illegal pickers out there who don’t have permits,” Fairbanks said.
Her “illegal” designation, she said, applied to salal harvesters, not to undocumented immigrants.
One licensed harvester complained weeks ago that he’d been chased out of his area by a group of about 20 unlicensed pickers, Fairbanks said. He was able to identify 12 of the people and their van.
“It’s very rare for these harvesters to report anything to the police,” she said.
When Fairbanks told other federal agents how hard it was for her, a single officer, to arrest so many people, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers offered to help.
“This was something that was planned because they had the resources to help me,” Fairbanks said.
“None of my time frames matched up with theirs until last week.”
When the arrests came, Fairbanks said she was investigating a similar but separate case in another area.
“We’ve been having more and more conflicts,” she said.
“These guys don’t play well in the same sandbox together. I’m trying to get it stopped before it gets to a point where somebody gets hurt.”
As for last Monday’s demonstration through central Forks, Mayor Reed called it “a very good march, a very peaceful march and a very organized march.”
She called the arrests “a legitimate law enforcement action.”
However, the arrests two days after the march caused a great deal of anxiety among West End immigrants, she said.
Reed said the city had developed a productive relationship between immigrants and officials.
“Then we have this happen, and it sort of set us all aback,” Reed said.
