Imagine a swarm of black SUVs swooping down Victoria Drive like a scene from a Bourne movie to arrest a bunch of working guys with hammers.

We can’t stop gangsters murdering each other and dumping bodies in Surrey but we got those Latin American carpenters illegally framing condos?

It was bad enough when we had reality TV shows about cops chasing small-time drug offenders down alleys in their underwear.

Now we’ve got Canadian border security agents with cameras in tow arresting a bunch of construction workers as if they were Hells Angels.

These arrests were filmed for a currently airing reality show called Border Security: Canada’s Front Line.

The agency’s response to criticism about the raid?

“Individuals working illegally in Canada undermine the integrity of our immigration system,” it said in a statement late Thursday.

“While a film crew was present at yesterday’s enforcement action, our officers do this on a daily basis in the absence of cameras ... Participation (by those arrested) in the television series is strictly voluntary. An individual’s case will not be negatively or positively impacted by their decision to participate or not.”

Here’s what the program’s website has to say:

“The series features exclusive access behind the scenes at the Canada Border Services Agency produced by Vancouver’s Force Four Entertainment for Shaw Media. Force Four Entertainment has gained exclusive access into the highly classified world of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). In every episode of Border Security, cameras shadow CBSA officers as they interrogate suspicious passengers who may or may not be hiding something. Passengers react in a variety of unpredictable ways — they lie, argue, play the victim, plead ignorance and even threaten legal action. But they are no match for the investigative tactics of the CBSA officers.”

No indeed, I’ve seen the show.

Think those Spanish-speaking carpenters were wily? You haven’t seen the guy trying to get a $960 pit bull across the border claiming it was worth only $500.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to get our tax dollars,” the customs officer gravely assured viewers.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Real Housewives of Vancouver may be reality television; Border Security is government advertorial supported by federal and provincial tax credits.

This program has no host, no balancing commentary or any journalistic saving grace — it’s tabloid television at its worst.

This is a diabolical partnership between broadcasters that need cheap programming and a Tory administration that wants free publicity for its law-and-order campaign.

Imagine the threat undervalued dogs pose to the economy.

“Throughout the episode,” the PR bumf assures us about the series, “officers question, cross-examine, inspect, pat down, swab, search and X-ray suspects and their belongings, chipping away at the holes in their stories. For viewers, it’s a wild, unpredictable ride as each passenger’s secret is finally revealed.”

Imagine a young woman coming to Canada to work two jobs — got her!

How about that California woman hiding her child’s medicine in the stroller? They got her, too.