PORT TOWNSEND — The city of Port Townsend is officially asking for a halt to Border Patrol activity in the area so policies in place can be reviewed.
The council approved a resolution expressing legal and policy concerns over the expansion of Border Patrol activity on “the Peninsula.”
The document specifically raises concern over the random checkpoints conducted along Highway 101 in 2008.
City Attorney John Watts said the resolution raised the concerns expressed from council members and urges elected officials to look at reforming the policy under which Border Patrol operates.
The resolution passed with a vote of 6-1.
Councilwoman Laurie Medlicott was the lone dissenter, saying she did not believe the resolution spoke for the whole community.
The resolution is addressed to President Barack Obama, members of the House of Representatives and Senate, the state Legislature and Gov. Chris Gregoire.
Councilman Mark Welch said while he was reluctant to get involved with federal policy, he was calling on the Benjamin Franklin quote, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Welch said he felt “that quote is particularly germane in this instance.”
Before the vote, 10 members of the community spoke on the resolution, mostly in favor.
Carl Nomura, who spoke of his time in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, said he saw many parallels in the current activity of Border Patrol.
“The law of the land is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty,” Nomura said.
Speaking as the lone voice against the resolution was Taymer Perkins.
“My wife is a legal immigrant,” Perkins said.
“She was checked for several things when she came here. They made sure she carries no harmful infections, she has no criminal history, and she has a means to make it when she gets here.
“It’s not the law that once you get in here the authority of the federal government ends.”
Councilman George Randels referenced the oath of office administered to new council member Kris Nelson earlier in the night as a response.
“[It says] to protect and defend the constitution of the United States of America,” Randels said.
“That’s where we start. That’s part of our job.”
Before the vote, Mayor Michelle Sandoval shared an emotional moment with the more than 20 members of the community who came to the meeting.
“I’ll just say that I feel very much that if I have brown skin, and I do . . .I feel that I shouldn’t even in a joking manner have to tell my son, who is very hispanic-looking, the he might get stopped,” she said.
Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
