A U.S. journalist says a Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent threatened to perform a cavity search on him during a five hour detainment at the New Mexico border last month.

The journalist, Andy Beale, traveled with a friend to the Santa Teresa border checkpoint on June 6 to begin a new photography project analyzing the similarities between U.S. and Israeli border fences.

According to Beale, an ICE agent approached as he photographed the area and told him that as long as he did not take pictures of agents he would be left alone.

Shortly after, a group of ICE agents arrived in the area and began demanding identification as he continued photographing the fence. Beale says he and his friend were then immediately taken to a nearby immigration building where they would be handcuffed to a bench for the next three hours.