Newly released documents reveal how the government uses border crossings to seize and examine travelers’ electronic devices instead of obtaining a search warrant to gain access to the data.Read the rest here.
The documents detail what until now has been a largely secretive process that enables the government to create a travel alert for a person, who may not be a suspect in an investigation, then detain that individual at a border crossing and confiscate or copy any electronic devices that person is carrying.
To critics, the documents show how the government can avert Americans’ constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure, but the confiscations have largely been allowed by courts as a tool to battle illegal activities like drug smuggling, child pornography and terrorism.
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2 comments:
You needn't actually cross a border for this to happen. I was on Amtrak in upstate NY last September when, a good hour away from the Canadian border, and never crossing it at all, the Border Patrol, at 11pm, came on armed to the teeth and demanding travel documents and wanting to know what people were texting and typing on laptops, phones, etc. I was staggered. A German foreign student beside me was foolish enough to admit to her status and was taken away for lengthy questioning even though all her paperwork was in order.
As someone who believes current immigration levels are frankly suicidal, I also agree that the immigration laws on the books are designed to harass and extract rents rather than actually protect the nation's territorial and cultural integrity.
I.e., anarcho-tyranny.
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