Not content to harass domestic traffic absent individualized suspicion of wrongdoing at roadblocks inside the country, Border Patrol agents are now storming private homes to seize video evidence of their own wrongdoing.
The folks over at Photography Is Not a Crime bring us a story about seven Border Patrol agents who hunted down a man in Escondido, California who had taken video of an agent and an undercover police officer beating a suspect laying on the ground. After discovering where the videographer lived, the agents stormed & searched his house hours after the incident without a warrant. They then seized his cell phone, also without a warrant, containing video of the incident. See:
Seven Border Patrol Agents Storm into Man’s Home After Midnight Seeking Footage of Abusive Agent
Unfortunately for the agents, the owner of the cell phone had already sent a copy of the video to a local news station making it impossible for the agents to destroy the evidence of their buddy’s use of force.
From my perspective, the main issue in this story isn’t whether or not the agent depicted in the video used excessive force to subdue a suspect – a worthy question in and of itself. The main issue is whether or not Customs & Border Protection gave explicit sanction, absent probable cause or a warrant, to seven of its agents to search a private home and seize private property OR if seven CBP agents decided for themselves to storm a private home and seize private property that shows one of their buddies in a bad light.
To be frank, I’m not sure which scenario is worse. An agency that explicitly sanctions such contempt for the rule of law or an agency that has so little control over the actions of its own agents.
So what happened to the owner of the cell phone? True to form, he was arrested two days later by his parole officer – undoubtedly by request of Customs and Border Protection. An agency who’s agents seem to rarely miss a beat in harassing those who shed light on CBP malfeasance.