A debate about expanding the Port Angeles border patrol station in Washington State gained strength after an agent testified against the U.S Border Patrol.
Christian Sanchez, an agent based in Port Angeles, said that the Washington station is a “black hole” that has “no mission, no purpose.” He released this information to the Advisory Committee on Transparency, a government watchdog group, on July 29.
“I am not able to perform my duties as a border patrol agent here,” Sanchez said. “This is a waste of taxpayer money.”
The U.S. Border Patrol is spending $5.7 million to construct a headquarters for 50 agents at Port Angeles. It will be completed in May 2012. There are currently 40 agents patrolling the area, compared to four in 2006, according to Sanchez.
The Border Patrol attributes the reason for expansion to the increasing “amount of personnel, technology, and infrastructure” for improving security that needed a larger building to deploy or operate from.
Sanchez had performed “real, important work” at the southern borders after receiving intensive training. He transferred to the Port Angeles station in 2009.
“I’ve talked to agents who confidentially expressed that they are depressed and are going 'crazy,' because there is no casework to do,” said Sanchez in his testimony. “We talked about how the skills from duties we performed many times down south would soon atrophy here.”
He also said the agents were paid overtime to do nothing and those who do not challenge management receive rewards such as getting preferred days off.
Sanchez had been threatened with being fired despite having a “spotless record” and claimed he was followed by undercover agents when he went to meet with his attorney, Tom Devine of the Government Accountability Project (GAP). The GAP is another government watchdog group and Devine specializes in whistle-blower cases.
The Border Patrol did not provide a comment on Sanchez's case but said that it will take “all allegations of wrongdoing seriously and fully cooperate with the investigating authorities.”
Some locals at the peninsula also disapprove of the station's expansion.
“We feel this expansion is not needed and a tremendous waste of tax money in these hard times,” said Lois Danks of Stop The Checkpoints, a group of Olympic Peninsula locals who are protesting against the U.S. Border Patrol's decision. “This buildup of border patrol agents and resources is really an extension of surveillance on everybody and is leading toward a police state.”
She said in an e-mail that the agents are “stalking anyone who is not Caucasian.” A Korean man who had resided in the area for six years was recently deported; and a Filipino who had lived in the United States for 15 years, was also deported.
The Border Patrol denied unfair treatment of different racial groups in an e-mail and said that the agency adheres strictly to the "Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies,” issued by the Department of Homeland Security.
The U.S. Border Patrol is responsible for apprehending terrorist and terrorist weapons illegally entering the United States between the official ports of entry. They also perform the mission of detecting and apprehending other illicit cross-border traffic.
