Boy Scouts Detained At Northern Border. Concerns Over Lighters, Matches and Knives. They Were Going To Alaska!

Border Patrol Finally Detains Some Minors At Border

July 29, 2014 by Sam Rolley 

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SPECIAL

U.S. Border Patrol officials recently detained and allegedly pulled a weapon on a busload of minors at the Nation’s border. Unfortunately, the bus wasn’t full of illegal aliens from the south sneaking into the country but a group of Iowa Boy Scouts en route to Alaska via the northern U.S. border with Canada.

According to Boy Scout Troop 111 Leader Jim Fox, the incident occurred when one of the scouts photographed a border official as the youngsters made their way across the border. The Federal employee promptly freaked out and claimed that it is a Federal offense to photograph a Federal agent, the scout leader said.

For the record, it certainly is not.

“The agent immediately confiscated his camera, informed him he would be arrested, fined possibly $10,000 and 10 years in prison,” Fox said.

Fox told local reporters that he didn’t want the situation to escalate and that he and the scouts complied with the official’s demands without protest.

As a search of the scouts’ van ensued, a border agent allegedly became spooked by the actions of one of the uniformed scouts and pulled his weapon.

“He heard a snap of the holster, turns around, and here’s this agent, both hands on a loaded pistol, pointing at the young man’s head,” Fox told Des Moines-based KCCI.

Luckily, the scouts made it through the ordeal without being maimed or killed by the Federal agents after four hours of delay and interrogations, including, Fox said, queries about “excessive amounts of lighters, matches and knives.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has denied that anything out of the ordinary happened to the scouts.

“CBP takes any allegations of wrongdoing very seriously,” CPB said in a statement. “CBP’s review of this group’s inspection, including video footage review indicates that our officer did not un-holster or handle his weapon as stated in the allegation. The review revealed nothing out of the ordinary. We have reached out to the Boy Scout troop for additional information in reference to the allegation. The video footage has been referred to CBP Internal Affairs for further review.”

The agency has, however, denied media requests to release video footage of the incident.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) also weighed in on the incident, calling it outrageous. The lawmaker said that his office is working to get to learn more about what happened and plans to discuss the matter with Homeland Security officials.