PORT ANGELES — A small group of people from Port Angeles and Port Townsend hope to start a Peninsula-wide movement this Saturday.
The Stop the Checkpoints Committee, led by longtime Port Angeles resident Lois Danks, will host a rally protesting the U.S. Border Patrol’s heightened presence on the North Olympic Peninsula, which took the form of roadblocks in August and September.
Open-microphone time, music by Howly Slim, a short march and brief speeches by committee leaders will begin at 1 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Park, 217 S. Lincoln St.
Clallam County’s Green Party and the North Olympic Peninsula Veterans for Peace are co-sponsors.
This summer, Border Patrol roadblocks were set up along U.S. Highway 101 east of Forks and on state Highway 104 near the Hood Canal Bridge.
Most recently, officers have checked passengers on buses.
Between Aug. 19 and Sept. 9, 15 suspected illegal immigrants were taken into custody and 10 U.S. citizens were detained for state or federal violations, said Michael Bermudez, spokesman for the Border Patrol’s Blaine sector that includes Clallam and Jefferson counties.
At the same time, a national buildup of Border Patrol agents is under way.
In fiscal 2009, the Department of Homeland Security will add 375 “enhancement positions” to the U.S.-Canada border, bringing the total there to 1,845 agents. In 2010 that will increase to 2,200 along the northern border.
Nationwide, the number of Border Patrol agents grew from 16,471 in May to 17,499 in late September.
Back in 2006, four Border Patrol agents were stationed in Port Angeles; today 24 are active across the north Peninsula.
All of this “affects everybody’s civil liberties. It militarizes the Peninsula when you have to pass through checkpoints to move around in your own community,” Danks said this week.
Danks and her committee — which includes Port Angeles writer Diana Somerville and Port Townsend attorney Paul Richmond — hope Saturday’s rally will galvanize people to gather signatures on an anti-checkpoints petition.
“They create a climate of fear in our community,” Somerville said at a Nov. 22 Stop the Checkpoints meeting in Port Angeles.
Bermudez said that the job of the Border Patrol is protection.
“We’re trying to keep the community safe. We’re trying to secure our borders, which will benefit the community we’re operating in.
“What would make our job a lot easier is if people worked with us instead of against us,” he added.
