AS US BORDER PATROL EXPANDS ON THE NOTHERN BORDER, SO DO QUESTIONS ...

SEATTLE (AP) -- The note from U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan to the U.S.
Border Patrol was short and to the point: Stop sending petty marijuana
cases to his office.

"It is our long-standing policy to use limited federal resources to
pursue the sophisticated criminal organizations who smuggle millions
of dollars of drugs, guns and other contraband across our borders,"
Sullivan wrote in November.

Sullivan's note is one in a string of flare-ups as the Border Patrol
expanded its influence and manpower here in recent months. The
marijuana busts had come from inland road blocks on state highways.

Sheriff's offices, farmers, and a U.S. Congressman have all made their
opinion about the patrol's increased presence known, and not all of it
has been friendly.

The clashes cast light on the expanded power of the agency along the
country's northern border.

More than 1,100 agents have been added to the Canadian border since
Sept. 11, 2001, four times its presence before the terrorist attacks.
Hundreds more agents are to be hired next year.

Agents can set up road blocks up to 100 miles from the border, board
passenger buses, and patrol transportation hubs that are not near the
border. Elsewhere, the Border Patrol, which is part of the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security, has set up road blocks in other
northern states, including Vermont, New York and Maine.

This authority, relatively new to the people of Washington, has
stirred controversy.

"It's the newness and the heightened presence of the Border Patrol
that has brought this issue to the forefront," said John Bates, the
patrol's chief for the western half of Washington. "We've been
utilizing checkpoints for more than 75 years. Obviously when you use a
new tactic in the border, people are going to have questions, and
rightfully so."

Bates wants people to speak out if agents are rude at the checkpoints,
one of complaints he has heard. But the checkpoints aren't going away,
said Bates, who calls them an integral part of the agency's security
strategy.

Advocates say intrusive operations -- such as boarding passenger buses
- -- are threatening civil liberties.

The American Civil Liberties Union has led the challenge of Border
Patrol's powers. They call the patrol's 100-mile belt of jurisdiction
a "Constitution-Free Zone" occupied by two-thirds of the country's
population.

"Our concern is not just what they're doing now. But what this
expanded interpretation of what they can do, can expand into," said
Shankar Narayan, legislative director for Washington's ACLU chapter.
"They can eventually claim a range of authority away from the border,
who can say where that stops?"

Narayan said the ACLU expects to file a lawsuit challenging the road
blocks when it finds the right case.

There are no checkpoints in largely rural eastern Washington and none
are planned, though spokeswoman Danielle Suarez said the patrol
reserves the right to set them up. Suarez said that eastern
Washington's rugged terrain calls for different tactics.

The last checkpoint operated in western Washington happened in
October, although border agents are now patrolling bus terminals.

In Vermont, the Border Patrol reinstated a traffic checkpoint 97 miles
from the Canadian border on an interstate in 2007. The checkpoint has
drawn criticism from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, who questioned its
effectiveness. The Border Patrol, however, also provides manpower and
technical aid to local police in the region.

In Washington, small protests have also taken place in the towns of
Port Angeles and Forks, two towns on the Olympic Peninsula that have
seen an increased presence of border agents. The peninsula can only be
reached from Canada by ferry.

In 1999, Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian national who was convicted on
multiple counts for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport
around Jan. 1, 2000, was caught by custom agents with explosives in
the trunk of his car when he drove off a ferry.

"Canada does have lax polices, there are dangerous people who have
gotten into Canada," said Ira Mehlman of the Washington, D.C.-based
Federation for American Immigration Reform. "They have these
checkpoints in close proximity to the southern border, and there's no
reason why they can't have them in the northern border."