Forced Searches of Phones and Laptops at U.S. Border Are Illegal, Lawsuit Claims
In a 2014 Supreme Court decision that made it harder for police to search cellphones without a warrant, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote
that the devices contained "the privacies of life." The policies that direct border agents are written to allow the digital searches "with or without individualized suspicion." But it’s not clear what, exactly, border agents are searching through when they seize devices.
In June, Kevin McAleenan, the acting commissioner for Customs and Border Protection, wrote in a letter to lawmakers
that agents are not permitted to look at data stored solely in the "cloud." According to the letter, which was first reported by NBC News, agents would be limited to data stored directly on the device, including photos, text messages, call histories and contacts.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union
and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, claims the plaintiffs’ First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated when United States agents searched, and in some cases confiscated, their devices without a warrant.
"This authority is critical to our mission, and Customs exercises it judiciously." While police officers on the street cannot compel you to hand over your phone without probable cause, border agents can search
and confiscate digital devices as easily as they can your luggage.
The government has said those searches happen to fewer than one-hundredth of one percent of international travelers, and
that they are authorized by the same laws that allow border agents to look through suitcases without a judge’s approval.
Four of them said their devices were confiscated; one of them, Suhaib Allababidi, a business owner from Texas, said the government kept an unlocked phone of his for two months,
and hadn’t returned a locked phone after more than seven months.