Fans of YouTuber SeanPaul “Long Island Audit” Reyes expressed concern for his safety over the past week after an encounter with United States border patrol officials at an immigration checkpoint in Texas and his planned reaction to the agents who briefly detained him.
Reyes shared his harrowing account of his brief detainment on the GoFundMe page he set up to fund future protests in relation to his treatment:
“Yesterday, I learned how fragile freedom can feel when it’s tested in the dark, far from home, at the hands of the very people sworn to uphold it.
On the evening of January 5th, I approached a U.S. Border Patrol immigration checkpoint in Texas. I wasn’t committing a crime. I wasn’t evading law enforcement. I wasn’t a threat to anyone.
I was simply recording — peacefully and lawfully — exercising a right that belongs to all of us.
That alone changed everything.
After a canine unit circled my vehicle and found nothing, I was asked if I was a U.S. citizen. I chose to exercise my constitutional right to remain silent. For that decision — for knowing my rights and standing on them — I was ordered into secondary inspection.
What followed was not routine.
I was surrounded by multiple federal agents. My calm refusal to surrender my rights was met with escalating threats. A supervising agent repeatedly warned me that if I didn’t comply, I would be arrested and detained.
Then, without consent and without cause, my car door was opened.
My phone — the very device documenting what was happening — was forcibly taken from my hands and thrown onto my dashboard. My seatbelt was unbuckled by force. I was violently removed from my vehicle. I did not resist. I did not fight back. I did not give them a reason.
Still, I was searched. My phone was shut off while recording. I was taken inside the facility, subjected to invasive searches, groped, and separated from my belongings.
I was threatened with forced fingerprinting — told agents would physically grab my hand and press it onto a scanner. I was threatened with arrest for “failure to identify.” I was placed into a holding cell, taken out, put back in, and threatened again — all to compel compliance.
No charges were ever filed.
Eventually, I was released — not because I had done nothing wrong (which I hadn’t), but because there was never a lawful basis to hold me in the first place.
When I returned to my vehicle and reviewed my phone, I made another chilling discovery: the recording of my detention had been deleted from my gallery. It appeared only in “Recently Deleted,” requiring Face ID access. I did not delete it.
My luggage had also been opened — with a visible hole cut into it — despite agents denying any search had occurred.
This wasn’t just a detention.
It was a message.
A message that silence is safer than knowledge.
That compliance is easier than courage.
That rights only exist if no one tests them.
But I refuse to accept that.
What happened to me should never quietly happen to someone else — not at a checkpoint, not on a roadside, not anywhere in this country.
Since this incident, I’ve been traveling, documenting, preserving evidence, filing complaints, and preparing for the road ahead. This work isn’t free. It requires travel, lodging, transportation, time, and resources — the real-world costs of standing up when others hope you’ll sit down.
This fundraiser isn’t just about me.
It’s about all of us — about whether transparency is protected or punished, about whether rights are respected or enforced only when convenient.
If you believe that standing on your rights should never land you in a holding cell…
If you believe that recording in public should not be met with force…
If you believe that accountability requires community…
Then I’m asking you to stand with me.
Together, we can make sure this moment isn’t forgotten — and that it leads to something bigger than fear.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for caring.
And thank you for helping turn this into accountability.”
Reyes had announced on a livestream last week that he was tentatively planning on using his GoFundMe donations to protest in front of the houses of the border patrol agents who had detained him, prompting concerns from fans who were worried about his safety due to the supercharged nature of ICE and border patrol related protests.
His followers were also less than supportive of his efforts as his GoFundMe has failed to meet his $3,000.00 goal in the week the campaign has been active. Previous campaigns by Reyes have brought in that amount in less than a day.
On January 7, the campaign brought in an initial $1,370.00 to win the day. His Help me Fight These Unlawful Charges & Injustice fund brought in an additional $10, while his Support The Fight Against Tyranny & Corruption fund brought in $50.00. Frauditor Troll’s Help us Fight this anti-free speech retaliation lawsuit followed with $3.00 in new donations.
January 8 saw the campaign bring in an additional $785 to win the day, along with another $50.00 in donations to his Support The Fight Against Tyranny & Corruption fund.
January 9 brought in $135.00 in new donations to the fund along with $50.00 in donations to his Support The Fight Against Tyranny & Corruption fund. Frauditor Troll brought in $6 in new donations for the day.
January 10 saw the fund bring in $170.00 in new donations for the day. Frauditor Troll’s campaign then lost $6.00 in donations for unknown reasons.
January 11 brought in goose eggs for all of the campaigns we follow.
January 12 saw Reyes’ campaign rebound with $65.00 in new donations. Frauditor Troll also saw life as his campaign brought in $17.00.
Finally, this morning, Reyes won the day with $380.00 in new donations. Frauditor Troll brought in $1.00.
Reyes’ campaign stands at $2,795.00 out of a $3,000.00 goal and is expected to meet its funding needs by the end of the week.
United States v. Montoya de Hernandez, 473 U.S. 531 (1985) (approving warrantless detention incommunicado for more than 24 hours of traveler suspected of alimentary canal drug smuggling).
United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543 (1976). The Court deemed the intrusion on Fourth Amendment interests to be quite limited, even if officers acted on the basis of the Mexican appearance of the occupants in referring motorists to a secondary inspection area for questioning, whereas the elimination of the practice would deny to the government its only practicable way to apprehend smuggled aliens and to deter the practice. Similarly, outside of the border/aliens context, the Court has upheld use of fixed “sobriety” checkpoints at which all motorists are briefly stopped for preliminary questioning and observation for signs of intoxication. Michigan Dep’t of State Police v. Sitz, 496 U.S. 444 (1990).
“That searches made at the border, pursuant to the longstanding right of the sovereign to protect itself by stopping and examining persons and property crossing into this country, are reasonable simply by virtue of the fact that they occur at the border, should, by now, require no extended demonstration.” Authorized by the First Congress, the customs search in these circumstances requires no warrant, no probable cause, not even the showing of some degree of suspicion that accompanies even investigatory stops.330 Moreover, although prolonged detention of travelers beyond the routine customs search and inspection must be justified by the Terry standard of reasonable suspicion having a particularized and objective basis, Terry protections as to the length and intrusiveness of the search do not apply. Motor vehicles may be searched at the border, even to the extent of removing, disassembling, and reassembling the fuel tank.
https://law.justia.com/constitution/us/amendment-04/19-border-searches.html
So now he is going to drop by the houses of people who legally detained him and try to do what? His point being? Let me guess, where is he even going to get addresses in the first place. But then he will show up as a “Journalist” and talk about affairs he made up with the wives to sow trouble?
When, one day, he does go too far and they slam him BACK into prison and throw away the key. Just remember this, Karma ran over his dogma.