Agents watching Canadian border seek tips via text message

June 09, 2010|Associated Press

METALINE FALLS, Wash. — US Border Patrol agents often use horses to look for smugglers in the forested mountains along the Canadian border, but now will be adding a more modern tool to help them keep watch: text messaging.

The agency yesterday began asking residents, campers, hunters, and other outdoor enthusiasts to send anonymous text messages to report suspicious people they come across in the lightly populated area from Washington to Montana.

“Each alert person is going to be an extra set of eyes and ears for us,’’ said Danielle Suarez, spokeswoman for the agency’s Spokane Sector, referring to the 200 agents who patrol the region.

The agency is also pushing a companion service that allows people to send tips through the website, tipsubmit.com. Officials say the e-mail is necessary in a region where cellphone coverage is sparse.

“Texting, I’m not hip with that yet,’’ said Pat Zimmerman, who co-owns the combination quilting shop and state liquor store in Metaline Falls, a scenic town of 220 people about 10 miles south of the border. She said she’ll probably use the e-mail service.

Immigrant rights groups say they are worried because similar efforts have devolved into racial and ethnic profiling.

“It can lead to targeting of particular communities,’’ said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, a Seattle immigrant rights group. “It creates the sense that somehow we should be suspicious.’’

To prevent profiling, the Border Patrol has been running classes in border communities to teach residents what to look for, Suarez said.

READER COMMENTS »

View reader comments » Comment on this story »