Border Patrol sets up roadblocks in Forks, Wash. (and throughout Olympic Peninsula)

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

The U.S. Border Patrol is operating a roadblock — stopping cars and checking drivers' nationalities — on a highway near the small Olympic Peninsula town of Forks, Clallam County, nabbing illegal immigrants and rattling the community.

Three roadblocks in all have been set up on the Olympic Peninsula.

... Forks is not on the border. It's 56 miles southwest of Port Angeles, where there is a ferry terminal that connects to Canada's Vancouver Island.

... Two of the three roadblocks are on Highway 101, one outside of Forks and the second near Discovery Bay in Jefferson County; the third is located at the Hood Canal bridge, Bermudez said.

At the road checkpoints, Bermudez said agents usually ask drivers different types of questions to gauge their status in the U.S., including questions about citizenship.

The Border Patrol has a jurisdiction of about 100 miles from the border, Bermudez said.

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008167700_forks09.html

[wysimdnwyg]

1. I don't get it

So now we have a problem with Canucks crossing the border illegally?

[PearliePoo2]

2. The Border Patrol is checking citizenship

The majority of the people detained and deported are Hispanic.

[Newsjock]

3. Mexicans, coming from Cana -- er, no, Mexico

The Border Patrol is nabbing Mexicans who are living among the natives in the small towns of the area. They're using their flimsy 100-mile rule to claim jurisdiction.

But the bottom line is that motorists are now being forced to produce "papers, please" as part of domestic travel, just as they have been in the Southwest for years. After getting hassled way too harshly by the Border Patrol in New Mexico, far from the actual border on I-25 (they seemed to be about 30 seconds away from tearing my car apart to find "drugs"), I've had more than my fill of de facto restrictions on domestic vehicle travel.

This assault on law-abiding American citizens, all in the name of solving our (very real) immigration problem, really pisses me off.

[Aristus]

6. "Peppers? You heff your peppers, ja? Let me zee zem. Sieg Heil!"

:mad::grr:

[LiberalFighter]

4. The 100 miles from border needs to be reduced!!

No justifiable reason for them having authority that far into our country.

[Buenaventura]

5. maybe we should just require furners to sew some kind of insignia on their clothing.

a yellow star? or, hmmm - a bullseye? :sarcasm:

[slackmaster]

7. I've been saying for years that Canada is the greatest threat to our national security

Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!

[XemaSab]

40. .

:patriot:

[Mrs. Overall]

8. I live about 15 miles or less from the Hood Canal Bridge and this is very disturbing news.

I am going to be forwarding this article to several friends in the area.

I was not at all aware that this has been going on.

On Edit: Just read the entire article. Can I just reiterate how pissed off this makes me?

[uppityperson]

13. They are doing by the bridge too (between us) 8/22 and 9/8. Edited to add article

pisses me off too.

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20080909/NEWS/809090304
Peninsula Daily News


SHINE — The U.S. Border Patrol conducted another random checkpoint Monday on state Highway 104 just west of the Hood Canal Bridge, according to a spokesman for the agency.

Agents stopped all vehicles at the roadblock from 11:25 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. to look for illegal immigrants, Border Patrol spokesman Michael Bermudez said. Two illegal immigrants were apprehended, he said.

The patrol had conducted a checkpoint near the floating bridge on Aug. 22, when seven illegal immigrants were detained. It also set up on U.S. Highway 101 north of Forks about a week later.

Under federal law, the Border Patrol can conduct the searches of vehicles for illegal immigrants up to 100 miles from any U.S. border, Bermudez said.

Last modified: September 08. 2008 9:00PM

[Mrs. Overall]

14. Thanks for the info., Uppity!

I can't believe they are doing this. It feels somewhat like a police state.

[Occulus]

30. Somewhat like?

No. That IS a police state.

(What do you think a police state looks like? Because this is it.)

[intheflow]

32. You were the first person I thought of.

Right in your neighborhood, relatively speaking. It's just nuts they're using the Port Angeles port as justification of for rounding up Latinos--like Mexicans are streaming in through a Washington sea port. :grr:

[AlphaCentauri]

9. I have never hear of immigration raids on white people

all whites are legal?

"I don't think it's fair to pick up the Hispanic people and deport them, I just think it's wrong," said Tanya Ward, a member of the Hoh tribe
...
"We had a few people yell at us to go back to where we came from," she recalled. "I'm Native American, I hear that comment all the time."

[Davis_X_Machina]

10. Border and ICE runs one..

...on I-95 south of Bangor, ME periodically. Big operation with dozens of officers.

[bitchkitty]

11. Damn! I used to live in Forks.

I would think that little town would be depressed economically - they used to call Forks the "Logging Capitol of the World!" but even in the 80s, it was hard to earn a living.

[High Plains]

12. A 100-mile wide Fourth Amendment-free zone.

Searches without probable cause, roadblocks.

In theory, tens of millions of Americans could be subject to this kind of thing: Anyone within 100 miles of a border (Seattle, Spokane, Detroit, San Diego, Tucson, El Paso, Brownsville-Harlingen), and aren't seaports an international border, too? (Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Jacksonville, Miamia, Los Angeles-Long Beach, San Francisco).

Hell, who needs martial law?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

20. This has always been the case.

Border patrol doesn't need a warrant within 100 miles of the border. It never has.

[High Plains]

21. Right. They generally haven't exercised that right as much as they could.

You get the roadblocks coming out of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, some along I-10 near the Mexican border, occasionally in New England...but as far as I can tell, there is nothing stopping ICE from setting up a roadblock on Grand Avenue in Detroit or the Alaskan Way in Seattle or even on Broadway in New York City. Am I wrong?

[WriteDown]

15. Not surprising near Seattle....

Seems like this area won't be satisfied until everything is 100% gentrified.

[High Plains]

17. Weird comment. Are you suggesting local authorities called for this?

My understanding is that it is the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement people.

[WriteDown]

18. Perhaps....

I can't be certain, but Seattle/Portland(region) always seems to have a high interest in keeping things very "white." Just a theory at this point though.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

31. I live in the area and understand what you're saying.

Especially the last few years. Not something one can easily put their finger on.

[uppityperson]

35. Are you saying this is to make the pacific northwet "white"? To keep it white?

Have you ever visited Seattle or Portland? I don't see either as very white. I am sure you are aware that they are 200 miles apart, aren't you ("Seattle/Portland region"?) ?

Edited to add census data from 2000. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/census2000/charts/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/census2000/charts/africanborn11.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/art/census2000/maps/minoritypopulationgrowth11.pdf
Minority population growth 1990-2000 (756K PDF)
In King and Snohomish counties, the number of minorities nearly doubled in the 90s, now making up a quarter of the population. The most dramatic changes occurred in south King County

[WriteDown]

36. Yes....

My sister lived there and is now in San Fran(another white enclave). I was speaking of the Pacific NW region. Seems that they like to keep their minorities compartmentalized. Gentrification there is pretty obvious.

[Anexio]

38. S.F. is not a white enclave

Either you are joking or you're just plain wrong in regards to San Francisco being a "white enclave". My guess is the later.

Could you provide a link to your assertion that San Francisco is mostly white, please?

Here's mine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco,_California#Demographics

From the article, "Like many larger U.S. cities, San Francisco is a minority-majority city, as non-Hispanic whites comprise less than half of the population. As of 2006, the Census Bureau estimated that 44.6 percent of the population was non-Hispanic white. Asian Americans make up about a third of the population; Chinese Americans constitute the largest single racial group in San Francisco at about a fifth of the population. Hispanics of any race make up about 14 percent of the population. San Francisco's African American population has declined in recent decades, from 13.4 percent of the city in 1970 to 7.2 percent of the population in 2006. The current percentage of African Americans in San Francisco is similar to that of the state of California."

Now if you had said Sausalito, then I would have agreed with you.

[ptvet]

16. Thanks Newsjock

For posting...
I've been stirring things up a bit on this very subject on my blog.
I've touched a nerve, I get some interesting hits to the blog now and again...
But I'm used to that :hi:

Since I enjoy "self linking" so much, my posts on these checkpoints can be
found here, http://thevigilantlens.wordpress.com/2008/08/24/terror-near-port-townsend/
here, http://thevigilantlens.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/war-on-florists/
here, http://thevigilantlens.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/the-battle-for-forks/
and of course from today, here http://thevigilantlens.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/hunting-brown-folks/

I don't post often, but a little self linking does feel good on occasion....;)
Also wanted get a bit more attention to these checkpoints that are on going.


Thanks all....

[hunter]

19. They are trying to nab Kim Jong II and his men.

His people are trying to sneak him into the USA where they plan to drop him off at a big city hospital emergency room.

Official Homeland Security Alert!!!

Be on the lookout for a bunch of shifty looking Asians driving a $400 car. One of them will be drooling.

These dangerous illegal immigrants are attempting to access our outstanding public healthcare system.

If they are successful it is expected that the hospital, following normal operating procedure, will immediately discharge the drooling immigrant in a medically stable condition and bus him downtown with all the other nutcases, bums, drunks, and drug addicts. His associates will then take jobs as day laborers in run-down nursing homes, never to be heard from again.

We MUST protect the jobs of legal U.S. citizen and immigrant nursing home day laborers! Be alert and please cooperate with Homeland Security officials in this most urgent matter. Thank You.

Michael Chertoff

[High Plains]

22. I wonder how many pot smokers they managed to bust.

That seems to be the main result of those I-10 ICE checkpoints, popping American citizens with a bag of weed in the car.

[alstephenson]

24. Yep. And on I-8 near Yuma. The route from Phoenix to San Diego.

And Yuma has "deputized" the Border Patrol agents so they can collect the fines for busting folks with weed on their way for a nice vacation at the beach. What a complete waste of resources. This New Times article is very informative.

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2008-03-13/news/border-patrol-checkpoints-near-yuma-nab-hordes-of-pot-users-headed-back-from-the-beach/#FeedbackDisplay

[Newsjock]

25. That's a highly recommended article

And reading it made me so angry that I've had to stop partway through.

The mission creep of the Border Patrol needs to be halted via an act of the next Congress. Our Supreme Court certainly isn't going to do it for us.

[TexasLawyer]

23. We've had this for years in Texas

We're stopped and searched every time we drive home (north to Houston) after a trip to south Texas.

[XemaSab]

41. I've dealt with this shit in California and Arizona but ONLY IN TEXAS

did they SEARCH MY TRUNK! :o

[Kali]

26. welcome to my life

been dealing with those assholes for YEARS down here. What are they catching many Canadian ICEBACKS?:rofl:

Border Patrol: hey why don't you do what your NAME is and PATROL the BORDER?! Not 60 or 100 miles this side! :mad: :mad: :mad:

[Earth_First]

27. They've been doing this for some time on the Northway waaaay up in the Adirondacks...

We were heading South on the northway (I87) when we approached and passed through a border patrol checkpoint more than 50 miles into Adirondack park.

7:30 p.m. on a Friday night.

[Wednesdays]

28. 100 miles, eh?

That means anyone in Detroit, Duluth, Erie, Buffalo, and even Cleveland can be subject to this kind of harassment.

[glitch]

29. This little frog feels a bit warmer. Have I told you today how much I hate these people?

Thanks for posting.

[libodem]

33. Who are they after

apple pickers? Pot smokers? They must be looking for some young men to bust so they can threaten them with prison or the Army.

[superconnected]

34. I don't expect this in my state, they're scaring the F- out of me.

I live 26 miles north of Seattle.

I always consider this area the place the rest of the US will have to run to if we ever get a christofacist take over. So this is very disturbing to have here.

[yeomalt]

37. A Creeping Police State?

Free people should not expect to stop and explain themselves as they go about their business far from the nearest international border.

[zane25]

39. Police state?

Would any of this be neccesary if there was any real immigration enforcement? Doing nothing with 20 million illeagal immigrants in the country is not an option.