Real America’s Voice investigative journalist Ben Bergquam and his production crew were detained at gunpoint by the U.S. Border Patrol on Friday at the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona while filming an episode of the network’s Law and Border program. Bergquam and his team have spent the past year reporting from the border and had previously never encountered such aggressive tactics by law enforcement, though they work regularly with numerous agencies.
Shocking video footage from RAV reveals how Bergquam and the RAV photojournalists were detained by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents – alledging they were forced into patrol cars and then investigated at gunpoint with their hands on their heads – while illegal border crossers were ignored.
“I have been to this section of the border many times, both with law enforcement escorts and without, and have never had an encounter like this,” RAV investigative journalist Ben Bergquam said.
“While we have complete respect for law enforcement, we were stunned to be detained at gunpoint while illegal immigrants looked on right after crossing our southern border. This incident reveals the backwards priorities of our leaders in Washington, unfortunately, as the border crisis worsens by the day.”
“Such targeting of journalists has rarely ever happened in America,” said Real America’s Voice CEO Howard Diamond. “Though the Biden administration’s border agency’s detainment of our journalists greatly concerns us, we remain undaunted in our commitment to deliver consistent and fact-based news reporting on the crisis on the southern border while the rest of the media ignore it.”
Data released by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed that 164,973 illegal immigrants were encountered at the southern border in February, the highest total in the history of the Department of Homeland Security.
That staggering number caps off 12 straight months of encounters above 150,000 per month, and a total of over two million illegal immigrant encounters since President Biden entered the White House.
This article was shared with Prittle Prattle News as a Press Release by PRNewswire.
