Plainclothes Border Patrol agents used at Anacortes

The Border Patrol checks at Anacortes include “plainclothesmen” who ask ferry workers to share “intelligence,” it was learned last week when a ferry worker came forward with his objections to being asked to divulge information.

The Border Patrol checks at Anacortes include “plainclothesmen” who ask ferry workers to share “intelligence,” it was learned last week when a ferry worker came forward with his objections to being asked to divulge information.

John Norby, a Washington State ferry worker, said that he was approached at the Anacortes ferry terminal last April by a man in plainclothes who identified himself as a Border Patrol agent.

As reported on KUOW radio June 20, Norby said that the agent said to him, “‘I’m undercover with the border patrol. I’d like to talk to you about sharing intelligence.”

“Sharing intelligence,” Norby added. He refused to cooperate.

On June 20, Customs and Border Protection officer Joe Giuliano said, “We don’t ‘spy’ on people. That was an intelligence agent. We don’t try to disguise who we are. Intelligence agents wear plain clothes. This intelligence agent identified himself and asked if the employee had information he was willing to share.

“The employee elected not to.”

The Border Patrol has been conducting security spot checks at the ferry terminal for the past few months that have led to nearly 50 arrests as of late May. All but one were Latino immigrants, according to Border Patrol figures. People arrested who are in

the country illegally now face deportation.

The undercover Border Patrol agent was also Latino, according to Norby.

He criticizes the Border Patrol for trying to infiltrate the Latin community, and said, “I ain’t got no quarrel with no immigrants, you know. Legal or not. These are landscapers. These are nannies. Farm workers, you know. These are blue–collar working people.”

The Border Patrol agency says it’s standard procedure to use plain-clothes officer on security patrols.

“This has taken on a tone that is almost laughable,” said Giuliano. “Every agency interested in working on fact-based information uses intelligence.”