A Texas National Guard soldier has filed an official complaint and a freedom of information request regarding an incident where the Border Patrol wrongfully detained him, harassed him, made fun of the National Guard, and even took his cell phone and deleted the video of the incident before setting him free after determining that he had done nothing wrong.
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| David and James Bellow with Congressman Ted Poe |
The individual filing the complaint is my brother, James Bellow. He has served with the Border Patrol on the Texas border in the Army National Guard. He completely supports securing the border and completely supports catching drug traffickers as they travel across the border and through Texas. I have written several articles in support of the border patrol and have advocated for more to be done to secure the border. I also wish that President Obama would do more to support the family of the border agent killed by guns in the failed ATF gunrunner program. Obama has gotten involved in the death of Trayvon Martin but he has not said one thing to the family of the border agent killed. So my brother and I completely support the Border Patrol and the border mission. On the other hand, we know that there is a level of professionalism that federal officers are expected to adhere to. What happened to him was in no way professional and possibly illegal due to them deleting video from his cell phone. He called me and told me what happened. I told him to immediately file a complaint and request the video from the checkpoint as evidence.
Below is the Body of the Complaint that was Filed Against the Border Patrol:
On April 2nd, 2012 at approximately 4:10 p.m., as I was passing through the Falfurrias checkpoint (not a border crossing but one of the checkpoints well inside of Texas), Border Patrol agents from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection directed me to pull over because they
