WHAT HAPPENED TO ME WAS WRONG

My 8-year-old son asked me recently if I had ever been arrested.

I’m not sure what prompted his question, but in this age of heightened awareness about the safety of our children, I paused to explain that indeed I had been arrested several times by law enforcement.

He was surprised and confused by my answer, and I tried to explain to him that sometimes good people get in good trouble, and that they do get arrested by the police.

I grew up in the border communities of San Ysidro and Nestor, less than a mile from the border wall. When I was a high school boy, I was detained and handcuffed by a Border Patrol agent while walking to school. It’s by far the most vivid memory I have of my high school years.

In 1994, Operation Gatekeeper, a federal iron-fisted border enforcement policy that militarized border communities, had just been launched by the Clinton administration, setting the foundation for the over-policing of our region. The expansion of powers of the Border Patrol, the largest law enforcement agency in the U.S., reinforced its ability to operate immigration checkpoints, board public transportation, search private property without warrants and trample on our most cherished rights, effectively turning all border residents into suspects.

Virtually everyone I knew — my parents, our neighbors, my friends, my teachers — had been questioned, harassed or detained by Border Patrol agents.

Ever since those high school days, I have dedicated my life to organizing in the border region so that we, ordinary folks, are able to go about our business free of government interference, harassment and abuse.

I have been arrested, threatened and harassed many times by federal agents for bearing witness to their abusive actions.

The journey has been extremely difficult but not devoid of victories.

In June 2010, my wife and I were walking on a pedestrian bridge that overlooked a pedestrian entrance into Mexico at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, and I noticed male Customs and Border Protection officials patting down female travelers. I snapped several pictures to document the abusive behavior of agents and kept walking. At the bottom of the bridge, a line of federal agents were waiting for us.

I was threatened with violence if I didn’t hand over my recording device to the federal agents. I complied and all of the photos I took of the incident were deleted. I knew very well that agents were capable of violence. A few days before that incident with CBP, federal agents were involved in a use-of-force incident that led to the death of Anastasio Hernández-Rojas, not far from where the male agents were patting down female travelers.

Later I learned that in Calexico in 2012, Ray Askins, an environmental justice activist, who was taking photos documenting needless delays at the Port of Entry in neighboring Imperial County, was also subjected to abusive behavior. His photographs were also destroyed by overzealous border agents.

With the support of the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties, we filed suit in federal court and in September 2020, we achieved a landmark settlement that established that all of us have the First Amendment right to record and photograph publicly visible law enforcement activity at all land Ports of Entry in the U.S.

This is an important milestone that will aid border residents to hold Customs and Border Protection agents accountable. This agency is not only the largest, it is also secretive and deadly. Over the past 12 years, more than 200 people have died in encounters with Customs and Border Protection officials, but not a single Border Patrol agent has been convicted of wrongdoing.

I am not sure when I will share all of this with my son, all the times I was accosted, harassed and intimidated by law enforcement for standing up for our rights, and why I felt compelled to risk being arrested or worse.

But I know he knows that sometimes you have to go the extra mile to make things better for all. I certainly hope he never has to endure the indignity of being a child detained and handcuffed for walking to school and if it does happen that someone is there to document it.

We now have more tools to hold CBP officials accountable and getting into good trouble has been worth it. If you believe that your First Amendment right to photograph and record government activity in public view at or near land ports of entry in the United States has been violated, let the ACLU know by visiting: action.aclu.org/webform/help-ushold-cbp-officials-accountable.