Behan said he will ask Bates how many agents staff the Port Angeles station and may ask for arrest data but said information may not be made public — if he even gets answers.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol’s parent agency, has refused a Freedom of Information Act request for current agent staffing numbers and arrest data from the Peninsula Daily News, citing national security concerns.
The agent staff grew from four in 2006 to 24 by April 29, 2009. Two weeks ago, Border Patrol Agent Christian Sanchez of Port Angeles said there are more than 40 agents stationed in Port Angeles.
The town of Port Angles Washington is crawling with Border Patrol Agents when there were none a few years back. This stems from Department of Homeland Security beefing up the borders from would be attackers from Canada. The locals have to deal with 40 of these guys who drive around immune from local law enforcement. They zoom up and down the area, speeding, and essentially doing nothing.
They are doing nothing because Port Angeles and the entire Olympic Peninsula is buffered from Canada by 20 miles of ocean! Yes, there is no actual border to patrol. The Coast Guard folks patrol the border 10 miles out to sea. The only way in is via a 2 hour boat ride that arrives at one dock which is already policed by the Customs and Immigration folks.
This sort of resource squandering is rampant while Congress debates higher debt ceiling so more money can be borrowed to waste on programs like this. It’s ridiculous.
Nice spot, Port Angeles. It’s main industry is the Victoria Ferry from the Inner Harbour to visit Olympic National Park or start the 101 down to the PCH. Both of them highly recommended.
It doesn’t need much of a border patrol. As Maxwell Smart said “Would you believe a boy scout with rabies?”. The big security risk? Americans smuggling Murchies Tea back home in their RV’s.
Ah, but all those guards protect us from the sparkely vampires.
Agent count will triple when the DHS deploys their submarine -hunting hydrofoil ship with remote-control helicopters.
Wow. THATS the job I want. Olympic Forest there is a magical place. I guess it is a job and therefore stimulus but shouldn’t such jobs actually perform a service?
I guess I just don’t understand politics.
And, it should be noted, the operation is bilking the public over bullcrap overtime issuance.
Funny thing — when VP Biden was asked to check over the budget to find something to cut — he didn’t mention the 100s of extra DHS guards who bravely defending the borders against terrorist attacks from Canada.
I guess that’s why we had to raise the debt ceiling. Goddamn Canadians!
#4 – you should get a job there if you have a green card.
Fun..
cut services to 1 -10 offices and ship it to the other, under control of the OTHER agency.. Do you think HLS does a better job then the Coast guard or border patrol??
Lord knows that the HEAD of Homeland sec. gets PAID MORE..
40 people / 3 shifts = 13 people each shift plus one Überfürher.
Hopefully they have been issued automatic rifles, grenades, and at least one tank. With this, they’ll protect us from a terrorist, or any unrulely citizens.
I hope JCD doesn’t end up in Gitmo for publishing a photo of a National Security asset.
I say this in jest but nowadays, you never can be sure.
As an aside, Android decided Titmouse was what I meant to type instead of Gitmo. Silly Google.
If it’ll keep future msbpodcasts out, then send ’em even more agents!
I can understand why staffing levels might not be available under FOI requests for security reasons but it seems like arrests would be public info. What are they afraid of? Do they think they will look foolish when we see they’ve spent tens of millions of dollars and caught exactly two pimply-faced teenagers with an ounce and a half of pot?
You do realize that this spot is famous—or should I say infamous—for being a hotbed of smuggling?
Here’s your clue:
http://smugglerslanding.com/
Our government spending is truly out of control.
What I cannot understand is why people, (always “Progressives”), who can’t seem to understand our government has become so bloated and wasteful that we can do just fine with 1/2 the government we currently have.
http://uhuh.com/taxstuff/gracecom.htm
But then again, we have Liberal Morons who can say nothing more than “VOTE ALL “NO NEW TAXES” POLITICIANS OUT OF OFFICE.”
I am from a longtime military family, I myself did not enlist. Having heard a lifetime of stories about how pointless most of what they did all day was. My father told many tales about how a base was on paper as having ten entry points, when it really only had one gate. The other entry points were clearings that it might be possible for helicopters to land in. So the good old US army had men stationed to stand out in fields to guard against helicopters invading a supply base just off fort Kit Carson in Colorado. Never mind that the guards at the gate were also in sight of the only building. The DHS seems to operate under the same theory. There is probably some good reason on paper why the port needs any number of agents, none of those reasons have to be plausible for agents to actually be deployed there.
Security Theater. That’s all it is. No actual security is provided by all this huge expense. Why don’t they try sending all these resources somewhere actually useful.
Too bad they can’t redeploy some of those agents down here in San Diego. We are getting attacked nightly by waves of small power boats smuggling in drugs and people. They are small open fishing boats with outboards and no lights deploying from Ensenada and the northern Baja beaches.
Yesterday up at San Onofre they found another skiff full of dope. They are finding small boats with illegals and drugs all up and down the coast, from Pt. Conception to the Mexican border.
Canada is a hot bed of terrorist activity.
#14 “Always progressives”? Take a long hard look at the picture at the top of this page and figure out which congress and administration this came from.
Both parties are up for sale. You’re just drinking the flavoraid which means it will just continue.
They got a nice picture on the one day a year it is sunny…no terrorist in their right mind would enter here, they could’nt light the fuse with all the moisture.
It’s because they doubled and tripled the Border Patrol, but the people in charge don’t want to send them to the Mexican border.
# 14 Ah_Yea : Maybe it’s my poor brain struggling against the lack of caffeine this morning but, in paragraph #2, you seem to be arguing that our government is too bloated by half. Then, in paragraph #3, you claim you don’t understand why people would not want to vote for “NO NEW TAXES”!
Please explain this apparent contradiction while I try to dig up some coffee…
#22 is a liberal moron?
> in paragraph #3, you claim you don’t understand why people would not want to vote for “NO NEW TAXES”!
> But then again, we have Liberal Morons who can say nothing more than “VOTE ALL “NO NEW TAXES” POLITICIANS OUT OF OFFICE.”
If you’re going to distort the truth, at least cite something that’s not on the same page!
Ok, Animby, here is the answer.
It’s correct that the government is bloated by half. Even more so now than ever.
Now, we have two opposing camps.
The first camp I address in paragraph #2.
This camp knows that we can and must cut Big Government, that borrowing 40 cents for every dollar collected is destroying our sovereignty, and by proper cuts we can reduce expenses, restore economic sovereignty, etc. without the lies about cutting social security and such. In fact, nobody would notice any significant changes. These are the “No New Taxes” group.
We have the second group addressed in paragraph #3 which simply wants to add on more programs without cutting the waste, and are blind as to how much unrestricted spending destroys our country.
This second group promotes getting their way by eliminating the “No New Taxes” group. Then there will be no opposition to unlimited spending and the economic ruin we know will happen.
Hence, the “VOTE ALL “NO NEW TAXES” POLITICIANS OUT OF OFFICE.”
This should be a sufficient explanation.
A little caffeine and all will become clear.
The requests for Northern Border duty is a long list. Many of the B.P. agents want off the South border. When they get seniority they opt for the safer border.
The little town I live in sits 20 or so miles south of the Canadian border. My children attend high school with children of agents. Even though there is crappy weather here its preferable for family life.
# 6 John C Dvorak said:
“And, it should be noted, the operation is bilking the public over bullcrap overtime issuance.”
Which could be going to filling potholes!
I live in Victoria BC, just a ferry ride away from Port Angeles (and Seattle), but myself and many of my fellow Canadians stay out of the US as much as possible because of the thuggish and paranoid border guards, who do as much as they can in to be assholes and prevent Canadians from coming down and spending money in their country. Oh well.
# 24 Ah_Yea : Thank you for responding. I see where you are going, now. And I’ve had a couple cups of coffee. Bad coffee but containing caffeine.
Bobbo: Hey, Bobbo. Did you see that? #23 jimmyr says I’m a moron. Possibly true. But, worse, he accuses me of being a liberal!!!
Or maybe, you might want to stop coddling the super-rich.
sargasso_c, oh yeah? You and what army?
Blame Canada! Blame Canada!