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With President Joe Biden set to visit Seattle this weekend for a series of election fundraisers, Third Congressional District Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Washougal, renewed her call for Biden to take additional action on border security.

“Border security must be the top national security priority for President Biden," Gluesenkamp Perez said in a statement Friday morning, joined by Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, Mary Peltola D-Arkansas, and Don Davis, D-North Carolina.

The criticism comes a day after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unveiled a proposal that would allow the agency to remove some asylum seekers quickly. If adopted, the rule would allow asylum officers to consider potential public safety threats earlier in the screening process, which the department said would allow for the removal of “individuals who pose a threat to the United States much sooner than is currently the case, better safeguarding the security of our border and our country.”

According to DHS, the proposal would apply to a small group of migrants, though it will shorten the process for their removal.

“The proposed rule we have published today is yet another step in our ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of the American public by more quickly identifying and removing those individuals who present a security risk and have no legal basis to remain here,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement announcing the proposal. “We will continue to take action, but fundamentally it is only Congress that can fix what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system.”

In the statement, DHS called on Congress to “pass needed reforms and provide DHS the resources and tools it needs.”

“These proposed changes do not give the Border Patrol the authority it needs to bring order to our Southern border, and the proposed changes will not be enough to stop the drug cartels from trafficking fentanyl over the border and into communities across America,” the group of Democratic lawmakers said. “Put simply, the proposal is not good enough, and it is taking far too long for President Biden to take the steps he urgently needs to take to restore operational control of our Southern border.”

According to DHS, from May 12, 2023 to May 1, 2024, DHS removed or returned more than 720,000 individuals, “the vast majority of whom crossed the southwest border,” and the total number of removals and returns since mid-May 2023 exceeds the “removals and returns in every full fiscal year since 2011.”

According to the Associated Press, the Border Patrol made 137,480 arrests of people crossing the southern border in March, a decrease from the 140,638 arrests the agency reported in February. The Associated Press noted that border crossings typically increase during warmer months.

Though Biden isn’t scheduled to visit the Third District, the criticism from Gluesenkamp Perez should perhaps come as little surprise.

Last month, she was one of five Democrats who voted for the End the Border Catastrophe Act, a proposal that would have reimplemented the “Remain in Mexico” policy and restarted construction of a wall along the southern border, among other immigration restrictions. The legislation fell short of a two-thirds majority needed to pass.

“President Biden has failed to end the crisis at our southern border, so I voted to do what he refuses to do: secure our border and stop the violent drug cartels pumping fentanyl into our country,” Gluesenkamp Perez said in a statement following the vote.

In February, Gluesenkamp Perez introduced bipartisan legislation to enhance security in the U.S. Southern border, reimplement a “remain in Mexico” policy for one year and provide defense-only funding to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. A $95 billion foreign aid package later passed without border security measures.

After introducing the Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act, Glusenkamp Perez said, the “government has an obligation to maintain secure borders and stand up for our allies facing existential threats to their democracies.”

As Gluesenkamp Perez enters her first reelection season, border security will likely remain at the forefront of voter concerns. An NBC News poll conducted in April found that 21% of voters said immigration is the top issue in the country, which ranked only behind inflation.

Both Republican challengers running to unseat Gluesenkamp Perez have criticized the Biden Administration’s border policy. In a tweet Tuesday, Leslie Lewallen said America “has a crisis at our Southern Border.” Joe Kent, who is seeking an electoral rematch in November, said in a Tweet Wednesday that Gluesenkamp Perez voted “to leave the border open” which allowed “millions of illegals into our nation.”

• COLTON ISAIAH TALLEY, 45, Onalaska, died April 29 at his residence. Arrangements are under the care of Funeral Alternatives of Washington.

• VICKY ALICE BAKER, 72, Winlock, died May 3 at Madigan Army Medical Center. Arrangements are under the care of Funeral Alternatives of Washington.

• RICHARD RUSH, 75, Chehalis, died April 26 at home. Arrangements are under the care of Newell-Hoerling’s Mortuary.

• JEAN “JEANNE” RECTOR, 81, Centralia, died April 28 at home. Arrangements are under the care of Newell-Hoerling’s Mortuary.

• KENNETH POACH, 58, Chehalis, died May 1 at Providence St. Peter Hospital. Arrangements are under the care of Newell-Hoerling’s Mortuary.

• WILLIAM WOOD, 81, Winlock, died May 3 at home. Arrangements are under the care of Newell-Hoerling’s Mortuary.

• KATHERINE “GAIL” MAGNUSON, 82, Centralia, died May 4 at Sharon Care Center. Arrangements are under the care of Newell-Hoerling’s Mortuary.

• GLORIA WOODING-ZERBE, 76, Centralia, died May 5 at Providence Centralia Hospital. Arrangements are under the care of Newell-Hoerling’s Mortuary.

CENTRALIA POLICE DEPARTMENT

Assault

• Police were dispatched to the report of a protection order violation in the 800 block of South Gold Street just before 8:05 a.m. on May 8. The suspect, Travis L. Combs, 50 of Centralia, left the area on foot before officers arrived. While officers were searching the area, a business in the 100 block of North Tower Avenue reported a disorderly male had entered the business and vandalized property inside. A short time later, a business in the 600 block of North Tower Avenue reported a disorderly male entered the business and vandalized property inside.  “Employees from both businesses provided a description of the suspect which matched Mr. Combs,” according to the Centralia Police Department. A short time later, an officer located Combs, who allegedly struck the officer when the officer attempted to place him into custody.  Combs was eventually placed into custody after the officer utilized his patrol service K9 “to gain compliance from Mr. Combs,” according to the Centralia Police Department. Combs was booked into the Lewis County Jail for third-degree assault. Additional charges, including violation of a protection order, resisting arrest and third-degree malicious mischief, were referred to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office. Charges were filed against Combs in Lewis County Superior Court on May 9.

Criminal trespass

• A homeless man who was allegedly drinking alcohol in public in the 400 block of West Main Street at 10:15 a.m. on May 8 was trespassed from a business.

• A homeless Packwood man was trespassed from a business in the 700 block of South Gold Street just after 12:55 p.m. on May 8 after he reportedly yelled at employees.

• Two homeless people who were engaged in verbal dispute outside a business in the 600 block of South Tower Avenue just before 11:35 p.m. on May 8 were trespassed from the business.

• A homeless man who was acting disorderly inside a business in the 2000 block of Borst Avenue at approximately 2:25 p.m. on May 9 and refused to leave was trespassed from the business.

• Two disorderly subjects were trespassed from a business in the 3200 block of Galvin Road just after 4:05 p.m. on May 9.

Drug violations

• A 19-year-old Centralia woman was cited for knowingly possessing meth in the 100 block of South Silver Street at approximately 11:35 p.m. on May 8.

• A woman was reportedly trespassing in a wooded area on private property in the 1100 block of West First Street just after 12:30 p.m. on May 8. Officers located the woman, 27, of Centralia, who allegedly admitted to possessing meth and fentanyl. She was cited for knowingly possessing a controlled substance and was booked into Chehalis Tribal Jail for an outstanding Centralia Municipal Court warrant.

Overdose

• Officers responded to a report of a male who was unresponsive and possibly overdosing at the intersection of East Second Street and North Tower Avenue just before 5:15 p.m. on May 8. When officers arrived on scene, the male was being treated by paramedics with the Riverside Fire Authority. A witness on scene advised officers that a female in a red van pulled up to their business and requested Narcan for a male overdosing in the vehicle. “The male was reported to be unresponsive and blue in the lips,” according to the Centralia Police Department. Employees helped get the man out of the vehicle and administer Narcan before Riverside Fire Authority (RFA) personnel arrived. The male regained consciousness several minutes later, after RFA paramedics continued life saving measures. The female in the red van departed after the male was removed from the van.

Hit-and-run

• A hit-and-run was reported in the 1400 block of Lewis Street just after 1:15 p.m. on May 8.

• A possible hit-and-run where a man was struck by a vehicle’s mirror after a brief altercation in the 1100 block of Harrison Avenue just after 10:25 a.m. on May 9 is under investigation.

Vehicle accidents

• A vehicle reportedly veered off the roadway and crashed into a residence in the 1400 block of Winterwood Drive just before 4:40 p.m. on May 8. No injuries were reported.

• A vehicle vs. moped crash was reported at the intersection of Alder and West Chestnut streets at 8:55 a.m. on May 9. The reporting party advised that the driver of the vehicle left the scene in another car, and the moped rider “had gotten up saying he was fine.” The vehicle involved was not located. When aid crews arrived, the male on the moped “advised that he did not wish to be seen by them and advised he did not want to talk to them and rode off and advised that he was late to work,” according to the Centralia Police Department.

• A non-injury, two-vehicle collision was reported in the 1600 block of Harrison Avenue at approximately 3:25 p.m. on May 9.

• Possible injuries were reported following a two-vehicle collision in the 2600 block of Borst Avenue at approximately 6:10 p.m. on May 9.

Scam

• At 3:10 p.m. on May 8, a citizen in the 400 block of South Gold Street reported they responded to a Facebook advertisement for a rental house in Chehalis and paid $100 via PayPal for the rental application fee. The citizen later discovered that the ad was a scam and that the house was not for rent.

Theft

• A retail theft that occurred on May 5 was reported just after 4:55 p.m. on May 8. A female suspect had reportedly stolen a $230 pair of cowboy boots, leaving her worn boots in the store and exiting with the new boots. Officers have video footage of the suspect and the case is under investigation.

• A retail theft was reported at a business in the 100 block of West High Street at 6:25 p.m. on May 8. A customer reportedly confronted the suspect after seeing them conceal merchandise. The suspect left the store while yelling at the customer and fled in a silver Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

• A 37-year-old Winlock woman was cited for shoplifting an alcoholic beverage from a convenience store in the 900 block of Harrison Avenue at 1:40 a.m. on May 10.

Unlawful weapon display

• A man in a pickup reportedly displayed a firearm to occupants of another vehicle after being honked at in the drive-thru lane at a fast food restaurant in the 1200 block of Lum Road just after 7:15 p.m. on May 8. The case is under investigation.

Child abuse

• A 22-year-old Centralia resident was arrested in the 3200 block of Galvin Road just after 10:40 a.m. on May 9 and was booked into the Lewis County Jail on an outstanding warrant and for obstruction. Criminal mistreatment of a child charges were also referred to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.

Dispute

• A man “dressed in camo and an Army hemet” allegedly pointed an Airsoft pistol at another man during a dispute at the intersection of Centralia College Boulevard and South Ash Street just after 10:20 p.m. on May 9.

CHEHALIS POLICE DEPARTMENT

Child abuse

• A possible incident of child abuse that occurred in the 1600  block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue on May 4 was reported at 8:25 a.m. on May 8.

Criminal trespass

• A criminal trespass reported in the 1200 block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue just after 11:45 a.m. on May 8 is under investigation.

• A subject who was reportedly sleeping behind dumpsters in the 10 block of Northeast Median Street just after 2:35 p.m. on May 8 was moved along.

• A man who was reportedly yelling and climbing on top of his truck in the 1200 block of South Market Boulevard just before 8:25 a.m. on May 9 was moved along.

• Subjects who were selling fruit at the intersection of Northwest Louisiana Avenue and Northwest Arkansas Way just after 12:25 p.m. on May 9 were moved along.

Dispute

• A verbal dispute over “refills not being free” was reported in the 100 block of Southwest Interstate Avenue just after 2:45 p.m. on May 8.

Disorderly conduct

• A man was reportedly yelling, screaming and talking to himself in the 2500 block of North National Avenue just after 4:35 p.m. on May 8.

• A juvenile was reportedly acting disorderly and screaming at staff in the 100 block of Northeast Hampe Way just before 2:25 p.m. on May 9.

• A man was reportedly screaming and banging his head against a building in the 600 block of West Main Street at 7:10 p.m. on May 9.

Suspicious circumstances

• At 6:10 p.m. on May 8, a citizen in the 400 block of Northeast Alaskan Way reported he thinks his mom is “pushing him” to fight her boyfriend.

• Three kids under the age of 3 were reportedly left unattended in a running vehicle in the 1100 block of South Market Boulevard just before 3:04 p.m. on May 9.

• “Suspicious circumstances” reported in the 2100 block of North National Avenue just before 3 a.m. on May 10 are under investigation.

Black bear sightings

• At 10:10 p.m. on May 8, a citizen reported hearing someone possibly trying to open the front door of her residence in the 300 block of Southeast Summit Road. She later reported there was “a huge black bear” on her porch.

• A black bear was reported in a yard in the 300 block of Southeast Crestview Drive just after 8:50 p.m. on May 9.

• A citizen reported hearing “what sounded like a large object grabbing her swinging gate” in the 1700 block of Southwest Grandview Avenue just after 10:25 p.m. on May 9. She was advised there was a bear in the area.

Malicious mischief

• A man was cited for third-degree malicious mischief, domestic violence in the 10 block of Southwest Scott Place just before 7:20 p.m. on May 8.

Hit-and-run

• A semi reportedly struck a railroad crossing arm at the intersection of West Main Street and Northwest Chehalis Avenue at approximately 8:45 a.m. on May 9 and fled the scene.

Harassment

• Just before 2:10 p.m. on May 9, a woman reported several people were harassing her in the 10 block of Southwest Chehalis Avenue.

Theft

• A third-degree theft reported in the 1600 block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue just after 5:45 p.m. on May 9 is under investigation.

Assault

• A subject was arrested for fourth-degree assault, domestic violence in the 1200 block of Bishop Road just after 6:30 p.m. on May 9.

FIRE AND EMS CALLS

• Between Wednesday morning and Friday morning, Lewis County 911 Communications logged approximately 50 illness-related calls, 25 injury-related calls, six fire-related calls, four non-emergency service calls, six vehicle accidents, one Lifeline medical alert, two overdoses, one ambulance request and five other calls.

JAIL STATISTICS

• As of Friday morning, the Lewis County Jail had a total system population of 121 inmates, including 108 in the general population and 13 in the Work Ethic and Restitution Center (WERC). Of general population inmates, 90 were reported male and 18 were reported female. Of the WERC inmates, 11 were reported male and two were reported female.

• As of Friday morning, the Chehalis Tribal Jail had a total system population of 15 inmates, including nine booked by the Centralia Police Department, five booked by the state Department of Corrections and one booked by the Lummi Nation.

•••

Sirens are compiled by assistant editor Emily Fitzgerald, who can be reached at emily@chronline.com.

Watching the past few weeks on college campuses has really been inspiring. 

Seeing so many young adults acting like tantrum-throwing children just makes you proud, doesn’t it? And our president, bless his generous heart with other people's money, is canceling — rather, transferring — student debt from many of these “young adults” to folks just like me.

I watch enough news to be informed, and agitated, which doesn’t take long these days. But I’ve seen enough of this foolishness to further suggest college is overrated. If this is what passes for getting an education and college leadership these days (really, too frequently an oxymoron it seems to me), then we’re in a lot of trouble.

I was taught that freedom comes with responsibility. One of the responsible things missing in this student-vote buying scheme is who signed the contract for the loans in the first place. Who thought it was a good idea to get a degree that would not provide an income to pay the loan back? Let alone get a job?

So once you get outside the professions that should have degrees — such as doctors, engineers and others like that — it seems to me it's more of an experience than an education. Lawyers used to be a profession but If I’m not mistaken, we recently stopped requiring graduates to pass the bar exam because I guess too many were failing it, which in my mind reaffirms the poor quality of education prospective lawyers are getting some places.

There are of course exceptions to this campus craziness, and I believe many more students paying for their education have rights too and should be protected from rioters. Sadly, their rights rarely make the news.

One of my sons who graduated from Western Washington University remarked about what he learned in his college days. College is a business and makes money. After he graduated, I received requests for the honor of donating even more money to them. Many of these schools have millions in the bank while demanding even more from us, and getting it too.

In 1972, when I graduated from high school, I received a small scholarship but still couldn’t afford school. So I joined the military and, after serving my time, used the GI Bill to eventually graduate from Centralia College. I believe that is an option still today, but obligating yourself to large debt and expecting someone else to pay for it is morally corrupt thinking. So is getting a useless degree that has little chance of making a person more employable. It might be fun. It might be easy. Colleges enjoy it. Just pay for it yourself.

These protesters, rioters really, have every right to peacefully protest. But that’s not what we're seeing. Instead, there is damage, trash, violence, trespassing and tantrums on full display while wearing masks; it's really not a good look.

And there are others whose rights are being trampled. Classes and graduations are being canceled, and threats and intimidation are rampant. Some of the demands these knuckleheads are making are ludicrous; feed us, give us water (like they are somehow trapped) and others unrelated to Israel. Sadly, in too many cases, the schools are appeasing these same knuckleheads, which will only make it worse.

So here we are watching young people who have no idea in many cases what they are protesting, throwing temper tantrums, making childish demands and asking for amnesty, too.  Seems like they know what they are doing is wrong or amnesty wouldn’t even be necessary.

Some day in the future, a potential employer with minimal effort will be able to see what a prospect was doing in their college days because they posted it proudly on social media. And the prospective employer may object to immature obnoxious behavior exhibited and simply pass on hiring them.

But not to worry. If these rioters have learned anything in their privileged lives, it's their actions have had little or no consequences so far in life. And one day soon, our government will protect this kind of behavior. Because that's what they do.

•••

John McCroskey was Lewis County sheriff from 1995 to 2005. He lives outside Chehalis and can be contacted at musingsonthemiddlefork@gmail.com.

With candidate filing week now behind us, the 2024 election season is in full swing.

Democrat leaders in our state are no doubt looking ahead to the August primary and November general election more eagerly than usual. Having worked to get a Democrat-friendly federal judge to redraw more than a quarter of Washington’s 49 legislative districts, they likely see this as the year when the Republican lock on legislative positions in central Washington will finally end.

The best response to this judicial gerrymander is simple: Send the Democrats packing in August and November. Refuse to reward them for trampling on our state constitution and using our state’s Hispanic residents as pawns in a shameless attempt to gain more political power.

Let’s recap how this situation was created, then look at how to deal with it.

Neither of the two legislative districts in the Yakima Valley has elected a Democrat to the state Senate since the 1940s. Rather than offering candidates who would support local values instead of extremist priorities, Democrat political operatives conspired to game the system instead.

Their target was the process our state uses to redraw electoral districts every 10 years following the national census. The process was put into Washington’s constitution by the voters in 1983, with bipartisan legislative backing, and is intended to prevent the “gerrymandering” that gives one political party an unfair advantage.

The scheme surfaced in 2021. That’s when the two Democrat appointees and two Republican appointees on our state’s voter-created, bipartisan Redistricting Commission approved a new map of legislative districts.

The map included a “majority-minority” district in central Washington. As of this year, 52% of its voting-age citizens were Hispanic.

Partisan interest groups from California and Washington, D.C., worked through local Democrat proxies to sue, claiming the majority-minority district wasn’t Hispanic enough.  In fact, Senate Democrats managed to throw $75,000 in taxpayer funds to UCLA professor Matt Barreto, who headed the California group.

According to his website, Barreto is a “Latino pundit” and closely aligned with the Biden White House and national Democrat campaign efforts. So Washington taxpayers unknowingly paid a Democratic operative who was working to help Washington Democrats get a more Democratic redistricting map.

Their lawsuit argued Hispanic voters were being denied “an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice,” in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA).

It didn’t matter that in November 2022, the voters of the majority-minority district elected Nikki Torres of Pasco as their state senator, by a 2-to-1 margin over a white, Democratic woman from Yakima.

Senator Torres became the first Latina senator from a district east of the Cascades, but her election also continued the Republicans’ winning streak. The Democrats continued their game.

Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson did an abysmal job of “defending” the state. He falsely claimed that the Redistricting Commission had unintentionally violated the VRA, and capitulated to the Democratic plaintiffs to give Democrats more power in our legislature. 

I and other Republican legislators wanted to reconvene the commission so it could rework the map and bring it into compliance with the VRA — but the Democratic leaders in the Senate and House said no at every opportunity. 

In other words, the Democrats who could and should have intervened didn’t, knowing that keeping the matter away from the redistricting commission would instead open the door for a federal judge to get involved.

Democrats filed their case in the U.S. District Court in Seattle and Judge Robert Lasnik, a Clinton appointee, was assigned to it.

In late March, several months after declaring the commission’s 2021 map to be in violation of the Voting Rights Act, he picked a new map from a batch presented by those who had sued: Remedial Map 3B.

The judge’s actions altered 13 legislative districts across 12 counties — including some in southwest Washington. He passed up maps that would have been far less disruptive.

Under the Lasnik map, Senator Curtis King of Yakima and his two House seatmates no longer resided in the district they served. Senator Torres and Senator Brad Hawkins of Wenatchee were put in the same predicament in their respective districts.

The one thing more outrageous than the effort to oust the first Latina senator east of the mountains from her district and push her away from the Yakima Valley’s core population of Hispanic residents is this: The Lasnik map reduces, rather than increases, the percentage of Hispanic residents in the state’s lone majority-minority district.

That’s right. Democrat operatives sued on the grounds that the district wasn’t Hispanic enough, and when asked to offer a remedy, they submitted a map that makes it less Hispanic — down to 51%.

When the Senate state-government committee met May 7, its Republican members pointed out that hypocrisy.

“So we addressed the inequity by making it less Hispanic,” said Senator Phil Fortunato of Auburn. Democrats on the committee had no reply.

At the same time, the political slant of the redrawn majority-minority district swung from being “+3.5%” Republican to a “+14.4” Democrat.

We know Judge Lasnik chose to make the district overwhelmingly Democratic because he asserted that Democrats were “Latino-preferred.” In doing so he ignored polling that showed Hispanics already prefer Republicans at a 40% rate — a rate that’s increasing and is even higher east of the Cascades.

Republicans understand Hispanics in our state are a swing population, and not in the pocket of any political party. In that sense the Lasnik decision is not simply a “partisan gerrymander.” It also seems anti-Hispanic.

While the federal court’s decision is still being appealed, the redrawn lines of those 13 legislative districts are set for the upcoming primary and election.

The voters of Washington created the bipartisan redistricting process that the Democrats have undermined. And no one is in a better position than the voters to hand the Democrats the consequences they deserve.

There are already many good reasons to turn out for the August primary and the November general election. Here’s another.

The voters can’t hold Judge Lasnik accountable for his wrong-headed ruling, but they can certainly do something about those guilty of orchestrating the ruling.

Think of the message it would send if all of the Democrat candidates in the 13 legislative districts redrawn by the court ruling were to be defeated at the polls.

An analysis recently showed that 40% of the Hispanic residents of our state chose a Republican ballot in our  presidential primary this year and that the Chinatown International District may now be the most politically conservative area in Seattle.

I can believe both are true. Democrats began losing touch with rural Washington voters decades ago, and the same thing is happening now with other groups whose support they have long taken for granted.

Instead of putting in the work to listen and connect with Hispanics in central Washington, Democrats are trying to use them to force more liberal Seattle solutions onto all people in rural areas.

They found a way to bring gerrymandering into our state even though our constitution offers protections against gerrymandering.

The best response to this Democratic scheme is to vote against the type of candidates who support their agenda. Support candidates who will prioritize lower taxes, public safety and excellence in our education system.

That’s the kind of policy which will actually benefit Hispanics and all Washingtonians.

•••

Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans parts of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.