Second of two parts [read the first part via the link below]
PORT ANGELES — Virginia-born Jay Cumbow, the U.S. Border Patrol’s new, easygoing agent in charge in Port Angeles, is overseeing a staff of agents that has grown by 17 percent since mid-September.
The number of Border Patrol agents operating out of the Port Angeles station grew from 36 in mid-September to 42 as of Friday, said George Behan, a spokesman for U.S. Rep Norm Dicks, whose 6th Congressional District includes Clallam and Jefferson counties.
That doesn’t include air and marine interdiction agents with the Office of Air and Marine who operate out of a headquarters on Port of Port Angeles-owned property at 1908 O St. in Port Angeles.
It also doesn’t include agents from the Office of Field Operations who monitor the U.S. port of entry at the Port Angeles ferry dock.
All three agencies operate under the administrative umbrella of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Office of Air and Marine spokesman Mike Milne said Friday he could not, for security reasons, release the number of interdiction agents based in Port Angeles.
A spokesman for the Office of Field Operations could not be reached late Friday afternoon.
Cumbow, whose first day on the job was Jan. 23, heads a Border Patrol staff that has grown many times during the past six years under the Department of Homeland Security.
There were four agents in 2006, a number that grew to 24 in April 2009 and which has now grown by 42 percent in fewer than three years.
Cumbow and his staff will soon move from the Richard B. Anderson Federal Building in downtown Port Angeles into a remodeled, $5.7 million North Olympic Peninsula headquarters at 110 S. Penn St. on Port Angeles’ east side that has a capacity of 50 agents.
The sprawling facility is on schedule for completion by mid-April, Border Patrol spokesman Jeffrey Jones said last week.
Its agents cover Clallam and Jefferson counties.
Their increased presence has sparked demonstrations in front of the new headquarters site by those upset by the agents’ increased presence on the North Olympic Peninsula.
In an interview in his office, Cumbow said he was eager to engage in the “community outreach” that the Border Patrol is trying to encourage to allay that criticism.
The detractors have included Port Angeles Border Patrol Agent Christian Sanchez, whose July 29 testimony in Washington, D.C., to a watchdog group, the Sunlight Foundation Advisory Committee on Transparency, focused national media attention on Cumbow’s new posting.
Sanchez said the Port Angeles Border Patrol station is an overstaffed “black hole” with “no purpose, no mission.”
Sanchez said that after he told supervisors there was little for him to do and that “our station was misusing federal funds,” he and his family, including his two daughters, were subjected to “ugly harassment” by federal officials.
Border Patrol Blaine Sector spokesman Richard Sinks said Friday that Sanchez is still working in Port Angeles.
During Cumbow’s first day on the job, he met with members of Forks Human Rights Group, which is opposed to heightened Border Patrol activities on the West End.
The meeting was arranged by the Border Patrol’s Blaine Sector office, which covers Alaska, Oregon and the western half of Washington state and has stations in Port Angeles, Blaine, Sumas and Bellingham.
“This is a good example of open communication with the human rights group and the community,” Blaine Sector spokesman Jeffrey Jones said last week.
“It served as a good opportunity to introduce the new [patrol agent in charge].”
Cumbow was an agent in the Rio Grande Valley Sector in South Texas before heading for Port Angeles, which he had never visited.
His wife, Leila, 47, a Border Patrol agent in McAllen, Texas, plans to move to Washington state to join him.
She will work in the Blaine Sector, though not at the Port Angeles station, he said.
For now, Cumbow is living in Sequim.
Cumbow pledged to look into criticism of the Border Patrol as he learns the lay of the land and reads as much as he can about the North Olympic Peninsula.
“I’ve got a whole lot of material to go through and a whole lot of people to talk to,” he said in a soft drawl fostered in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where he grew up.
To that end, Cumbow has already met with law enforcement agencies on the North Olympic Peninsula, which can call on the Border Patrol for translation assistance at traffic stops — which can in turn result in the arrest of illegal immigrants.
“Our whole goal is to build good relationships with our law enforcement partners, and to leave it better than we found it,” Cumbow said.
“It’s the same thing with our community. Our agents live in this community. We are here to make our community better while protecting this country.”
Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict has met with Cumbow.
“He’s a wonderful guy who’s well-educated, and we’ll have a wonderful working relationship,” said Benedict, whose deputies uses translation assistance from the Border Patrol for traffic stops.
“I still stand by the fact that I have questions about whether we truly need 60 or 70 agents,” a total Benedict posited by estimating the number of Border Patrol agents combined with Office of Air and Marine interdiction agents and Office of Field Operations agents.
Cumbow said he is looking forward to moving into the new headquarters just three months after he moved to a place he had never been before.
“Changes are a fact of life in the Border Patrol,” he said.
Cumbow, who replaces Todd McCool, assumed command from Acting Patrol Agent in Charge Jason Carroll, who will stay on as the current assistant patrol agent in charge.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
The first part of this two-part series can be accessed online today at www.peninsuladailynews.com or after today at http://tinyurl.com/borderpdn.
