André Wheeler

🚨This video is terrifying, and it’s exactly why “just comply” does not protect you from ICE/Border Patrol agents, even as U.S. citizens, and why you always film them. In North Carolina, ICE/Border Patrol agents illegally stopped two U.S. citizens. They questioned them without legal cause, took their licenses, and admitted on camera that the men were allowed to record. And they were still attacked. In the video, one man asks if he can film for his safety. The agent says yes, saying that he’ll “have to put his mask on.” The agents take their licenses, ask where they’re from, where they live, what they’re doing in the area, all without legal authority. The men cooperate anyway. Then the situation turns dangerous. Another agent suddenly tells the driver, “Turn off your video. You are being detained, so you are not free to record.” That is false. Recording law enforcement in public is legal, including during detention. The driver calmly refuses, keeps one hand on the steering wheel as instructed, and holds his phone in the other. That’s when the agent lunges for the phone. The agent throws himself into the car, trying to grab the device. When the driver moves it away, the agent assaults him. The agent then illegally opens the car door, something the driver correctly points out they are not allowed to do. The agents keep demanding the filming stop, as multiple agents keep reaching for the phone. Then they escalate again. They threaten arrest, grab the driver, and start hitting him and trying to drag him out of the car, even though he keeps saying, “We haven’t done anything wrong.” When they fail to pull him out, they back away, visibly angry. They turn on the passenger next. An agent grabs him, threatens handcuffs, and assaults him trying to force him out of the vehicle. When that doesn’t work, they start yelling conflicting commands, claiming the men are “interfering with an investigation.” An investigation into what? Their own illegal stop. At one point, an agent shouts that the men can’t interfere, while another tries… again… to grab the phone, almost certainly to stop or erase the recording. Only after all of this do the agents finally release them. Because they are U.S. citizens. Because the stop was illegal. And because the camera was still rolling. This is why you film ICE. This is why compliance doesn’t save you. This is why they hate cameras. If this hadn’t been recorded, this would be another lie in a report, another “resisting” accusation, another abuse buried and denied. Film them. Always.