He's saying he was targeted because he's known to disapprove of the Trump administration? Please. If anything, it was considerably worse prior to 2016. A better question would be why someone technically knowledgeable would be carrying a laptop through airline security at all. As soon as it's out of your hands, you have to assume it's been blown, security-wise. Far better to just buy a burner Chromebook at your destin…
Taking a laptop through airport security as a carry-on doesn't involve letting it out of your hands. (I assume they do not hire hobbits to hide inside the X-ray machine and implant hardware on your motherboard.)
It's horrible but the case-law seems fairly well settled; various courts have ruled that lots of searches that would otherwise violate the 4th Amendment are totally permissible for CBP agents within 100 miles of the border and at customs checkpoints within international airports. I'd love to be surprised if there is a legitimate case here.
Sure, but you should still have the right to have a lawyer confirm that for you, no? The entire reason we have the right to legal representation is that individuals are not expected to understand all the case law in the country. A lawyer can totally say "Yeah, they're allowed to search you, unlock your phone"—but the ability to confirm that with a lawyer is an important right.
The right to an attorney is actually limited to criminal defendants, so if they don't charge you with anything, you aren't actually afforded that protection Constitutionally. So if they just detain you, they can credibly ignore this. I'm not 100% sure on how Miranda rights apply to border detainee situations, but if they do apply, you'd get a phone call. If they don't, your options are basically to wait them out.
Every time an article like this pops up I am validated in my decision to no longer travel to the United States.
This is the part I don't get. Surely they realize there are a large portion of people that will avoid that county just on principle that they may be hassled at the border. I can imagine that these policies have cost them millions of dollars. Imagine going to a county and being turned around all because you had an employers laptop you promised not to unlock for anyone. Or how about a personal laptop with naked picture…
These power-tripping thugs don't think that far ahead. They only care about exercising authority in their tiny little hundred-foot-long kingdom.
Although it is difficult to do so, maintaining your calm when faced by intimidation by government agents generally works out. Andreas did exactly the right thing - followed his gut calmly then, filed a case in the courts later.
When did he file a case? It's not mentioned in the blog.
It's an administrative complaint with the Department of Homeland Security, not a legal case. Not sure if this is an area where there is an administrative remedy that needs to be exhausted before filing a lawsuit, or if there is some other reason for the decision to take this approach.
i love how “the time is long overdue”. everyone says that when it happens to them. he’s not wrong, but we need more folks that don’t sit around as if it’s someone else’s problem.
I'm an American and I have been detained and searched by CBP without actually ever leaving the country. They didn't ask my name, just that we needed to get out of the car while they let their dog search the car.
Can you say where that happened?
These CBP searches happen all the time near the Mexican border. I've been stopped at a few before traveling down there. The CBP checkpoints are permanent in some places, so there's plenty of people who have to go through it during their daily commutes.
How does a layperson without retained counsel handle this? Is there an ACLU hotline? Do I need to be prepared with a number in my wallet?
They didn't even give him the chance to make a call. You're completely helpless unless you've done your research and come up with a game plan ahead of time.
> The agents proceeded to search my belongings and demanded that I unlock my smartphone and laptop. This was rather concerning for me. My phone and laptop are property of my employer and contain unreleased software and proprietary information. I’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement promising not to give anyone access. His employer is Apple. I was always worried about this same scenario when traveling with an Apple-ow…
if his employer is apple then he is fine to unlock. all such employers require you to follow border agent instructions. that said he may be in violation of a policy not to travel with proprietary info
> that said he may be in violation of a policy not to travel with proprietary info
How is this policy supposed to work? Seems like it would a huge pain point for any sort of travel.
Is this something we need to petition congress to fix? Do CBP agents have the right to search the electronic devices of US citizens without a search warrant or not?
> Is this something we need to petition congress to fix? Do CBP agents have the right to search the electronic devices of US citizens without a search warrant or not? IIRC, if you're a citizen, they have the power to seize your devices (and anything else you have, for that matter) and temporarily delay/detain you, but not to force you to unlock anything. They can't deny you entry. If you're not a citizen, then they c…
They can also intentionally lie to you about what they can and can't do. There have been reports of this happening.