For Immediate Release

February 10, 2009

Rep. Dicks Seeks Review of Border Patrol Actions

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) has asked the head of the federal government’s Department of Homeland Security to review the recent enforcement actions conducted by U.S. Border Patrol agents on the Olympic Peninsula.

 In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Rep. Dicks described the series of vehicle checkpoints and bus boardings that have raised local concerns about the Border Patrol’s priorities in the region as it carries its primary mission of securing the U.S.-Canadian border.  “The national security value of this checkpoint strategy on public roads, inconveniencing hundreds of (legitimate U.S. citizen) motorists during each instance, is unclear to me and my constituents,” Rep. Dicks noted in the letter.

 The congressman said he met in October with the Chief of the Border Patrol, but that since then “CBP agents have adopted an even more aggressive strategy of performing ad hoc traffic stops, making individual arrests.   While I understand that the Border Patrol mission includes coordination with local law enforcement on border control issues, I have serious questions about the agency’s direct authority to stop individual automobiles and detain, in some cases, legal residents of the United States until they are able to prove their status.”

 In the letter, Rep. Dicks also said that he was also disturbed by reports of Border Patrol agents boarding local buses and primarily questioning riders about their citizenship. 

 “I would appreciate your personal attention to the question of whether these activities are the appropriate and best use of the limited resources available to your department as it confronts the myriad of serious threats to the security of our homeland,” the congressman’s letter concluded.

View the letter Rep. Dicks sent to Secretary Napolitano


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