Immigrant arrests prompt protest in Sequim (Peninsula Daily News)

Immigrant arrests prompt protest in Sequim

By Tom Callis
Peninsula Daily News

Last modified: February 01. 2009 4:45AM

SEQUIM -- The arrests of two Sequim men by the Border Patrol sparked a small protest at the intersection of Sequim's busiest intersection on Saturday.

Jose Antonio Hernandez, better known as Tony Hernandez, and Daniel Rodriguez were detained Friday morning and taken to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Tacoma, confirmed Michael Bermudez, Border Patrol spokesman, on Saturday.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, four demonstrators stood on the corner of Washington Street and Sequim Avenue holding signs that said "Stop Homeland Security fear tactics" and bring "Tony & Daniel home."

Hernandez and Rodriguez work for OJ's Landscaping and were driving in a work truck Friday morning on Sequim Avenue not far from Sequim High School when they were stopped by Border Patrol agents, said Mario Gonzales on Saturday, who notified protest organizer Lois Danks of the detentions.

Gonzales, who is the uncle of the owner of the landscaping company, knows both men and played soccer and basketball with Rodriguez, he said from his Sequim home.

Bermudez said the two men were not stopped at a checkpoint.

Last summer, agents operated roadblocks north of Forks and near the Hood Canal Bridge to check identification.

Agents have been reported stopping Olympic bus line buses.

Gonzales said that Hernandez, 28, is a legal resident, but was arrested because he didn't have his alien registration -- or "green" -- card with him, and therefore could not prove his status.

Rodriguez, 18, is not a legal resident, he said.

Bermudez didn't have the details of the two arrests on Saturday.

He said that a person holding a green card won't be arrested unless there has been a violation of legal status.

"If he did have a green card, he was arrested because he violated his status," he said.

Court date

Gonzales said Hernandez, who has a wife and four-year-old son in Sequim, has an immigration court date in Tacoma on Monday to prove his residence status.

The arrests, particularly the detention of Hernandez, exacerbates the apprehension of Hispanic immigrants in Sequim, said Gonzales, who has been a U.S. citizen for nearly nine years.

"We are all on the same page," Gonzales said.

"If they detain me, I don't really have nothing to prove that I am a U.S. citizen.

"It's tough for us to prove we are U.S. citizens unless we carry a passport everywhere we go."

Danks, coordinator of the Stop the Checkpoints Committee, which held Saturday's protest, said Hernandez was at the group's meeting earlier this month. The group formed in September.

Hernandez told the group that he had been stopped by the Border Patrol while getting lunch.

Danks said it is her understanding that Hernandez was carrying his green card during that incident.

Hernandez wasn't the only Hispanic immigrant at the meeting concerned about the Border Patrol, Danks said.

Increase in contacts

"They came because they said the harassment of immigrants had been on an abrupt increase in Sequim in the last two weeks," she said, "that people had been stopped, held at gunpoint when their ID was checked."

Danks was referring to an incident that Gonzales said involved his brother-in-law, who is a U.S. citizen, nearly three weeks ago.

Gonzales said his brother-in-law was among a group of people helping a friend move in Sequim. He said that Border Patrol agents had them lie on the ground at gunpoint while their identification was checked.

A few of the people there were arrested on immigration charges, but his brother-in-law was not one of them, he said.

Bermudez couldn't confirm if that incident occurred.

He added that, if guns were drawn, he is confident that the agents complied with the Border Patrol's use of force policy.

"Border Patrol agents wouldn't just draw their guns for no reason," he said.

"In order for us to draw our weapons, the agent has to feel that their life, their partners' life, or a third party member is being threatened with lethal or egregious bodily harm."

Bermudez said the agents review the use of force policy four times a year.

Gonzales said the incident has left his brother-in-law troubled.

"Every time we talk about immigration, he gets all shaky," he said.

"Having someone pointing a gun at you is going to scare you."

Border Patrol activity has been on the rise on the North Olympic Peninsula, and along the rest of the northern border of the United States.

The number of agents based in Port Angeles increased from four to 24 in two years as part of an increase in personnel across the U.S.-Canadian border mandated by former President George W. Bush.

The federal Department of Homeland Security has announced plans to build a facility, with a short-term detention area, in Port Angeles later this year.

The Border Patrol's mission, Bermudez has said, is to maintain "operational control of our nation's borders."

That includes apprehending terrorists, deterring illegal entrance into the United States, stopping smugglers of drugs and people, developing smart border technology and cutting crime in border communities.