On Monday, two of our journalists, Matt Lewis and Diego Robles, ventured into Mexico to do some research for articles they are working on for the Institute.
Lewis and Robles parked in Nogales and walked toward the U.S.-Mexico border. Lewis, 21, said he stopped and snapped a photo of the checkpoint station on the United States side as a souvenir.
To his surprise, Lewis said his action angered U.S. Border Patrol agents, who quickly told him to delete the photo. Lewis said he complied and the pair were then escorted to the agent’s supervisor.
After they explained to the agents that the stories they were covering had nothing to do with the checkpoint, the agents let them leave, they said.
Lewis said he’d taken only one photo, and “it was already gone.”
“He said, ‘Oh, no, no. I believe you,’” Lewis said, “and I’m thinking, ‘OK, well if you believe me then why are you making such a big deal out of it?’”
Heading back to the United States was another mini-adventure for them: Robles forgot his passport, but he said it turns out that multiple IDs work, too. So Robles hauled out his California driver’s license, his Ohio University identification card, his brand new CatCard (issued for the University of Arizona and this Institute), his Institute press badge and an old U.S. Army military identification card.
“I had like five IDs on the ground,” he said. “It was interesting.”
Salvador Rodriguez and Jamie Klein