Breaking News

Tonight, the CBP (Customs and Border Protection) sent up a phalanx of officers to alleviate our concerns, here in Point Roberts. We had a 2-star General, at least one 1-star General and eleven other CBP folks of elevated rank (all packing clearly visible guns in holsters) to talk to the maybe 80 people who turned out from the community. The CBP people were distributed in groups of 3 or 4 at tables around the perimeter of the room, and my first response was one of decided discomfort at the sight of so many uniforms, so many weapons.

And then matters deteriorated a bit. The meeting began badly because the CPB honchos seemed to think they had come to talk to us. Apparently, they had many individual prepared presentations, perhaps as a way of using up time, just in case the audience was at a loss for words. Twenty minutes in to their explaining what a hard job they have and what a good job they are doing, a hardy Pt. Roberts woman of a certain age (alas, not me) courageously got up and said, ‘I’m sorry; I’m not as polite as the rest of these people here, but you’ve come up here for 90 minutes and we want to talk to you, not have you talk to us. You need to hear from us.’

And, to their everlastintg credit, those CBP heavies spun on the dime, sat down and listened to us for the rest of the evening, responding appropriately to our concerns. At the end, they weren’t able to say, ‘Look, we’ll fix it all.’ But then, we didn’t expect that. We expected them to listen to us, to hear the legitimacy of our concerns. And for all I can tell, they heard. They seemed impressed with the depth of our concerns, our feelings, and our sincerity, and were not just giving us the brushoff in their responses. As one said to me afterwards, “I realized coming up here that a Nexus card isn’t just a convenience for you….it’s your life blood,’ and ‘Nobody ought to be fearful when crossing the border…at least not four times a day.’

They heard about people who have lost their Nexus cards for bizarre reasons, for trivial reasons, for no known reasons. They urged us to ask to talk to a Supervisor if we were offended by one of the CBP people’s behavior at the border. We told them that if you ask to talk to a supervisor, there is every chance that that request will be used against you in the future. We mentioned that the supervisors, even if you do talk to one, ALWAYS backs up the officer and then explains to YOU how YOU should be more understanding of the difficulty of their job. They told us to write to various CBP officers if we are displeased with the border guards’ actions or their supervisors’ responses. We told them that you never get a response. They told us to write to the Ombudsperson in Vermont; we reminded them that the Ombudsperson doesn’t reply or, if he/she does, provides you with no information. We said we needed a better process for dealing with the CPB perceived misbehaviors. They said that when we write to the Ombudsperson, be sure to mention that you’re from Pt. Roberts. The request for a better, different, independent, or common sense process for objecting to what was going on didn’t really make much headway, but then they’re not going to just say, ‘Cool, dude, I never thought of that,’ and then produce some kind of peoples’ court.

Finally, after many very specific accounts of bad or at least very dubious doings by their employees and colleagues, one of the officers (a Major) took out a note pad and started taking down peoples’ names and contact information so that they could look into the individual tales of disrespect and disorder that so many people here have been subject to over the past few years. General Michelle James (the 2-star), who was the primary speaker on behalf of the CBP seemed almost shocked by what she was hearing, as she again and again tried to assure us that ‘such things’ shouldn’t be happening. And that we should give them a chance.

My own feeling (which I did state) was that we no longer trusted them and it was going to take some time for them to build that trust back up but that we would be willing to try if they were; it wasn’t personal. Another local guy noted that they see us as the enemy and now we see them that way, but we’ve got to get past that, both of us. They responded that they were hearing us, that we would see changes, that they were deeply committed to professionalism, and they promised another meeting in a year (or less, was the advice of one of them privately).

Things to look for: (1) longer Nexus operating hours at least in the summer; (2) responses to complaints and to Nexus denials; (3) more clarity on the food rules (CPB did distribute a paper dated 3/30/2009) which provided current food rules, including the information that “US fruits, except citrus, may return [from Canada to the U.S.] if they are in season and clearly marked with US brand labels (For example, Washington apples with stickers).” And the officer responsible for agriculture issues (out of Blaine?) said that even citrus bought in Bellingham, e.g., labeled, packaged, and with a receipt, could go straight through to Pt. Roberts.

And some other interesting news that was not announced during the public part of the meeting but that one of the Generals told Ed and me when we were talking to him afterwards: you can now use the Nexus card in any lane because all lanes now have the ability to read the Nexus card.

My concerns were feeling a little alleviated at the end of the two hours. Anyway, I left the meeting smiling and feeling cordial, which is not always the case after meetings in Pt. Roberts, and almost never the case after a discussion of the border.

Two addresses of use from the meeting:

Michelle James
Director of Field Operations
CBP, USDHS
1000 - 2nd Ave
Suite 2200
Seattle , WA 98104-1049

Jonni Galarza
Passenger Service Manager
USDHS
9901 Pacific Highway
Blaine, WA 98230
(jonni.galarza@dhs.gov)
(360-332-6091)

Sad to say, I was not able to find a web page for the Seattle Operations Office of CBP that provided any detailed information about the names/phone numbers of the various officials operating out of that office. It may be there, but in 15 minutes or so of googling, I didn’t find it.