• Uphold Civil Liberties
• Redirect Tax Dollars
• Protect Minorities

We cannot allow ourselves
to be scared into suspending
the Constitution.
If we do that, we might as well
call the terrorists and tell them that they have won.
—Representative Silvestre Reyes (D-TX)

B  O  R  D  E  R     P  A  T  R  O  L     F  R  E  E

The Network

The carrot harvest at Nash’s Organic Produce in Sequim – Border Patrol agents targeted Nash’s farm daily throughout the 2008 growing season. Tax dollars pledged to “stop terrorism” were directed instead toward surveillance of valuable farm workers.

The BORDER PATROL FREE NETWORK is a group of organizations and individuals who have come together to oppose Border Patrol activities inside our borders and to reverse the expansion of Homeland Security on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. We are calling for a “Border Patrol Free Zone” to end these activities which abuse our civil liberties, target minorities, waste tax dollars, and create a climate of fear in our communities. The actions of the Border Patrol on our rural peninsula do not enhance border security.

The seeds of this network were planted when the City of Port Townsend, The Leader, League of Women Voters, American Association of University Women, ACLU Jefferson County, and Port Townsend Peace Movement responded to the checkpoints that had begun appearing on the peninsula by co-sponsoring an informational Border Patrol Public Forum (see the video here). On November 3, 2008, 400 concerned citizens attended a 2-hour forum about Homeland Security’s rapidly expanding presence on the Olympic Peninsula. The packed house listened to presentations by Border Patrol agents, Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Brasfield, Port Townsend Police Chief Conner Daily, Attorney Ann Benson of the WA Defender Association’s Immigration Project, and ACLU Legislative Director Shankar Narayan. Following the presentations was an audience Q&A.

The forum sparked an appeal to our elected representatives to stop checkpoints, personnel and facility expansion plans, and raids, to reduce BP activities and funding, and to urge that dwindling resources instead be redirected to support critical education, health, social services and infrastructure needs. Border Patrol practices—such as improper search and seizure; stopping, questioning, and detaining without reasonable suspicion; ethnic profiling and targeting of minorities—resulted in the creation of the documents and materials included on this website: petition to “Keep the Border Patrol at the Border”, documentation project, film, hotline and more.

The BPF Network does not have a formal mission statement, structure or membership. Many independent efforts are coalescing informally to eliminate this federal intrusion. Among the groups and organizations contributing to these efforts are the Port Townsend Peace Movement, the Social Justice Committee of St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church, and the Jefferson County Democrats.

These are not partisan concerns. Residents across political, social, religious and economic divides have united to voice opposition to the use of this federal enforcement agency inside our borders. We ask for a return to the values guaranteed by our Constitution: freedom, equality, justice, and individual liberty.

We welcome other individuals and groups to join us. Please help us by contributing time to any of the many projects underway. Your financial support is also greatly appreciated!

We invite groups who are organizing around other areas of the country to use the materials and resources we have developed as part of their efforts to address this misdirected federal enforcement program. We would like to network with you!

Many thanks to the ACLU for their ongoing assistance and for helping to circulate the petition through their online activist network.

Contact us at: contact@bpfree.org

B O R D E R   P A T R O L   F R E E   N E T W O R K