Peninsula Daily News and news sources
SEATTLE — A complaint from a Forks woman has changed the national policy of the U.S. Forest Service in its use of Border Patrol agents for translation services.
A Latino woman from Forks who accompanied Benjamin Roldan Salinas of Forks on May 14, 2011, before his fatal flight from a Border Patrol agent has played a pivotal role in a federal decision on translation-assistance practices such as those that the U.S. Forest Service had requested from the Border Patrol before Roldan Salinas died.
The woman’s complaint, filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on her behalf by the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, led to a ruling by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that was made public Thursday, Matt Kemp, the organization’s legal director, said Friday.
The USDA, which oversees the Forest Service, said the Forest Service’s use of Border Patrol agents as language interpreters and for law enforcement in stops involving Latinos on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula is discriminatory.
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights within the USDA has ordered the agency to establish a new national policy so non-English speakers can use national forests and parks without an “escalated risk of harm,” The Seattle Times reported.
The Forest Service was ordered to institute civil rights training, develop a policy on data collection regarding traffic stops, report annually to the USDA civil rights office and provide bilingual staff and telephonic and radio interpretation services.
Specifically in Forks, the Forest Service office within three months must publish a notice that affirms its commitment to civil rights and informs people how to file civil right complaints.
The Forks Forest Service office also must publish the notice in all newsletters, mass mailings and other periodicals mailed by the agency for six months — in English and Spanish.
The notice posted in the Forks office will say that the Forest Service “subjected an individual to discrimination on the basis of her national origin during a traffic stop,” according to the ruling.
The woman who filed the complaint is the same person who is identified as M.N. in a similar complaint filed May 1 by the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project with the departments of Justice and Homeland Security.
That complaint cites six instances of alleged civil rights violations through use of Border Patrol agents as interpreters, including the incident that led to Roldan Salinas’ death by drowning in the Sol Duc River.
The USDA decision is being reviewed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol said Friday in a statement.
“CBP is committed to carrying out its law enforcement mission in a manner that fully respects civil rights and liberties,” the statement said.
The woman and Roldan Salinas, both Latinos, were picking salal in Olympic National Forest before they were stopped in their car by a Forest Service officer, according to the complaint.
When a Border Patrol agent arrived a short time later — Kemp said the Border Patrol was called before the stop — Roldan Salinas and the woman ran.
Although the woman was quickly apprehended, the man jumped into the fast-moving Sol Duc River.
The Border Patrol agent saw Roldan Salinas “go under the water,” the ruling said.
The agent “did not go into the water after [Roldan Salinas], because she felt the water was too swift for her to navigate it safely,” according to the text of the USDA decision.
A search by law enforcement agencies and local residents ensued, but Roldan Salinas’ body was found 4 miles downstream 21 days later.
Jorge Barón, executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said the USDA’s decision vindicates complaints made by many about discriminatory practices of the Forest Service on the Olympic Peninsula.
In April, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Border Patrol seeking to bar agents from making traffic stops, saying people are being pulled over and questioned for the way they look and without reasonable suspicion.
The lawsuit stemmed from tensions between immigrants and the expanded presence of Border Patrol agents on the North Olympic Peninsula, which shares no land border with Canada.
The ACLU and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project filed the lawsuit on behalf of three Peninsula residents who have been stopped by Border Patrol agents.
Border Patrol spokesman Richard Sinks said at the time that U.S. Customs and Border Protection “strictly prohibits” profiling on the basis of race or religion.
The Thursday USDA decision said discrimination is heightened by the Forest Service’s use of Border Patrol agents as interpreters but can be mitigated by “well-designed practices and policies.”
The Forest Service, the decision said, “has no specific policy regarding the use of Border Patrol as a backup to provide guidance or safeguard against discrimination.”
