US border forces are seizing Americans' phone data and storing it for 15 years

I’m not here to defend policing as it stands in the US or dismiss any wrongful killing. I just disagree with a particular narrow assertion.

How about instead of this handwave-y impossible ask BS you cite any actual cases at all since Lyttle v. US (10 years ago) where the CBP denied a US Citizen entry or deported them? There is plenty of case law here. In Nguyen v. INS the Supreme Court stated that (emphasis added) "[...]a citizen entitled as of birth to the full protection of the United States, to the absolute right to enter its borders, and to full participation in the political process." And that's not even tied to a passport. In Worthy v. US the 5th Circuit found the government could not impose a penalty on returning without a passport: "We think it is inherent in the concept of citizenship that the citizen, when absent from the country to which he owes allegiance, has a right to return, again to set foot on its soil. . . . We do not think that a citizen, absent from his country, can have his fundamental right to have free ingress thereto subject to a criminal penalty if he does not have a passport."

Lower courts have since cited all this, even when the practical result was a mixed bag or a loss for the plaintiff. Fikre v. FBI was about the no-fly list, and the court didn't hold that the absolute right to return meant the US couldn't prevent getting on an airplane in another country, and that Fikre hadn't asserted enough facts to support that the No-Fly list and boarding denial were enough to violate his right to get to a port of entry a different way. I think that's unfortunate, saying essentially "well take a boat or figure out a flight to Canada/Mexico" isn't ok and I think the whole no-fly list is flagrantly bad, but the court did uphold a citizen's right to enter borders on getting to them.

Finally in Lyttle v. US [0] there was indeed a case where a US citizen with mental challenges was detained by ICE and deported, after being allegedly coerced into signing a document falsely stating he was Mexican citizen. This set off a saga that eventually resulted in the DHS terminating deportation efforts "on the basis that “it was determined that [Lyttle] was not a Mexican citizen and is, in fact, a citizen of the United States.”" The court refused to dismiss all damages claims, and at all times ICE/CBP proceeded on the basis of fraud that he in fact wasn't a US citizen. Court found that the government is simply not authorized to detain or deport US citizens, and thus may not ignore any credible assertion of citizenship.

So again, if you have a newer example to share where someone was denied entry at all, let alone "with very little recourse", you share it. Otherwise you're just posting FUD.

----

0: https://casetext.com/case/lyttle-v-united-states-3

1. Have a reasonable amount of emergency savings (6-8 months of expenses stored).

2. Have someone in-country who isn't traveling with you who can make sure your bills get paid (financial power of attorney).

3. Apply for Global Entry, which pre-clears you for border crossing.

4. Turn your phone /off/ when you land (usually a 15-20 minute walk to passport control in most airports). Powering off is important.

5. Refuse to provide the password, refuse to unlock. Provide all relevant travel documents and customs declarations, and allow free inspection of your baggage.

6. Wait... depends on the agent. Longest I've been detained was 2 days, most of the time they hem and haw for an hour or so and let you go.

7. Go on with your life.

Step #1 and #2 is in case you get arrested, which will almost guarantee losing your job, at least for right then. Since you can clearly establish no priors and that you aren't a flight risk, getting bail and then finding another job should be relatively easy to do within 6-8 months for most of the HN crowd. Also, invest in pre-paid legal.

Obviously, this is assuming things go mostly okay and you don't get murdered at the airport, however the realistic probability of this occurring is fantastically low (these types of crimes are almost always committed in the US by local law enforcement, not federal law enforcement, as feds undergo much more stringent requirements and aren't just your high school bully drunk on power with a gun).

Steps #1 and #2 you should be doing anyway, just out of good financial sense. Step #3 you should do anyway if you're traveling internationally regularly just to make your life easier when black swan events don't happen. And Step #4 you should do EVERY time you are about to let your phone out of your possession, whether involving the government or not, because it prevents most forms of attacks against an encrypted device and disables biometric unlock (which can be coerced/forced/done when you are dead).

The hardest step is honestly #7, because after what I've experienced in my travels (and let me tell you, the US CBP is MUCH MUCH more professional, courteous, and reasonable than many many other countries), nobody really believes you and there are way too many people that are apologists for the powerful. Governments, pretty much universally, suck. The only difference between whether you personally experience the suck or not is whether or not you happen to get randomly selected or fall outside the bounds of what the government expects of you. There is no requirement that you do anything "wrong" in either the moral or legal sense, to end up stuck in the suck. Embrace the suck early if you plan to exercise your rights, because doing so will bring the suck on to you full force, but if you're the self-righteous type at least you'll get some sense of satisfaction out of it.