ANACORTES, WASH. — Looking to snag illegal immigrants, drug runners and terrorists, the U.S. Border Patrol is staging surprise checks of travelers on domestic ferry runs in the San Juan Islands. What they are catching is heat from ticked-off locals.
Border Patrol agents began conducting random checks and undercover surveillance at the Washington state ferry terminal in Anacortes this year. The agents intercept disembarking passengers, inquire about citizenship, request IDs, and run vehicle and criminal background checks. A plainclothes officer patrols the small terminal.
The beefed-up security has sparked scores of complaints from island residents, but authorities stand by the spot checks on domestic ferries -- which they say could expand to include a second route.
The measures are "not a stretch, not speculative," said Joseph Giuliano, deputy chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol's Blaine, Wash., sector. "Our intel tells us we have a limited problem" a few miles from Canada's Vancouver Island.
"We don't like to go out on limbs with our limited resources," he said.
About 12 times a month since February, armed border agents in fatigues have put up checkpoints -- a jarring presence for many in this vacation destination known for its serene landscape.
Agents have arrested 50 people -- 49 of them Latinos, mostly from Mexico -- on suspicion of immigration violations and have turned them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ferry ID checks also netted four U.S. citizens on charges of personal use of marijuana.
The Border Patrol wants to secure a porous border and send a message, not to chalk up mass arrests, Giuliano said.
Through history, the archipelago's 170 islands, web of channels and isolated coves have provided cover to criminals -- opium traffickers, moonshine peddlers and pot sellers.
In December 1999, Ahmed Ressam -- the so-called millennium bomber -- was arrested in nearby Port Angeles, Wash. A customs agent stopped Ressam for questioning as he was leaving a ferry from Canada. Ressam had explosives in the trunk of his rental car; he was later convicted of plotting to blow up Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium celebration.
But that was an international ferry.
Many islanders have a different attitude toward the domestic ferry runs. At packed local government meetings, some critics of the recent spot checks tossed around terms like "police state" and "racial profiling."
