Border agents can search cellphones without a warrant or reasonable suspicion

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/the-government-was-entitled-trumps-border-agents-can-now-search-cellphones-without-a-warrant-probable-cause-or-reasonable-suspicion-2nd-circuit-rules/

63•mmh0000•1h ago

Comments

tencentshill•1h ago

And now you're extra suspicious if you don't have one at all

petcat•1h ago

Customs has always been able to search everything without a warrant or suspicion when crossing the border. I guess this is saying that they can search the digital contents of physical devices/media as well?

wrs•1h ago

It says they can manually search them. According to this, the ruling explicitly doesn’t say if they can digitally search them.

inopinatus•1h ago

digitally also means “using the fingers”, so never consent to a digital search without prior clarification

esafak•21m ago

You using the whole fist, doc?

righthand•1h ago

So carry a separate device while traveling. Or wipe your phone, then restore after the border. This is just going to lead to a service that does this for you and the overreaching feds won’t be able to do anything about it.

And as far as I can tell you still don’t have to give them your pin code.

autoexec•1h ago

They don't need your pin, they can just hack the phone take all your data anyway. ICE has a contract with Cellebrite

puppycodes•59m ago

Not really. Cellebrite isn't magic. If you have an up to date OS and a strong password not pin, encryption functions as it should. The best thing to do is simply have a travel phone.

prettyblocks•1h ago

the worry is that this will be interpreted as tampering and cary consequences.

iamnothere•21m ago

This would not be tampering, because you haven’t tampered with anything. The “evidence” is simply at home.

peezd•43m ago

It's been somewhat established that having a wiped or basic phone is in itself sus and reason for them to investigate you further.

0xbadcafebee•1h ago

The problem with these laws isn't that they can search you at the border. It's that they can search you within 100 miles of the border (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_search_exception). The total number of people who live within that zone is 213 Million people, or 2/3 of the total population (https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/border-zone).

ramesh31•59m ago

The best time to delete all social media accounts and never post anything online with your name attached ever again was 10 years ago. The second best time is right now. This stuff can and will be used against you out of context 10, 20, 30 years into the future.

mmh0000•56m ago

It is insane to me that judges consistently rule that the constitution doesn't apply because there's a "border" within 100 miles.

The 4th Amendment says, exactly:

   The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I do not know how that could be unclear. My cellphone is my effect, and arguably, also a "paper". Which SHALL NOT BE VIOLATED. But apparently, I'm too dumb to understand the sentence[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United...

esafak•45m ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_search_exception apparently

rtkwe•27m ago

So the main argument is that in the time that was written and immediately afterwards we can look to see what they mean by that by how it was implemented. At the time it was understood that the government could and would search goods as they enter the country without warrants to enforce things like tariffs. I think that's a fairly reasonable interpretation of the meaning. Where I think this goes wrong (and maybe deviates from history?) is the conflation of papers and other digital records now with physical goods, historically were people's papers searched as they entered the country (beyond say looking through them to find hidden goods, I mean reading and examining letters and records)?

alistairSH

andix•54m ago

Anyone still crossing US borders with electronic devices that aren't fully wiped? This is company policy for some European companies for a long time. Even during the Biden administration.

Most employees just receive a wiped phone/laptop for the duration of the trip. Depending on the country its either a device that only has access to the bare minimum of Services, or for countries like Russia they issue a dumb phone that can only call and text.

iamnothere•20m ago

Half of the commenters here seem to believe that nobody has ever done this successfully because it must be “suspicious”. Despite it being a common practice for many organizations.

andix•5m ago

It might be suspicious, but they don't get any incriminating evidence that way. It's also much easier for people visiting. Most of the time entry is denied and you can take the next plane back home. I'm fine with that, don't care. I only care if I would get taken into ICE detention. This risk grew significantly, so I simply won't go.

flerchin•18m ago

It's frankly insane that y'all have to do that, and yes Americans cross the border, perhaps haplessly.

andix•1m ago

Is there any difference between US citizens and visitors? It just seems like US citizens think those charades are normal and don't question them. In my home country I can just deny getting my devices searched. They might be allowed to seize and seal them, awaiting a court order for searching the device. Which I could appeal. Basically the same process as anywhere else in the country, international borders are not some special place that gives the police superpowers.

gigel82•43m ago

This is confusing; what happens to you if you refuse a warantless search of your property?

I'm a US citizen returning home. Do they just... send me back out of the country? :) I don't suppose they'd have the grounds to arrest me since there is no law that I can see being broken. I suppose they could keep the device until such time that a warrant could be obtained to digitally search / break into the device (but that requires some reasonable suspicion - simply refusing a warantless search isn't it).

boldlybold•30m ago

They let you in and keep your property. I've never had an issue at a border, but I still keep my devices encrypted and powered off when crossing.

crooked-v•29m ago

They detain you, probably take and keep your stuff, and within a relatively short amount of time release you.

Well, they probably release you. If you're brown or just dealing with the wrong people they may unlawfully beat, kidnap, and exile you anyway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportations_of_U.S._citizens_...).

sublinear•7m ago

You do realize that a lot of US citizens who have been living along the border for many generations cross all the time, and that they're "brown" right? They don't get beat down by anyone. In fact, many of the agents are also "brown" themselves.

Leave skin color out of it.

Contrary to popular belief, almost nobody on the US side in the southwest wants to immediately move to New York or Seattle.

0xy•22m ago

It's a massive swing and a miss that GrapheneOS has a religious opposition to a VeraCrypt-style hidden volume arrangement that allows different passwords to unlock different OS volumes.

It would be vastly superior to their current solution, which basically guarantees contempt charges.

I hope they change their mind soon!

UncleOxidant•12m ago

This. There should be a password that unlocks to a fairly minimal, but not too minimal configuration that wouldn't have anything of interest on it.

PaulKeeble•9m ago

The problem is it will be detectable and detected and then the password demanded and a failure to provide it will result in charges. I think unfortunately the answer is the phone has to be plausibly empty when crossing the US border, they should focus their efforts on being able to store the full state of the phone remotely and encrypted and being able to restore it easily.

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