U.S. Customs and Border Protection conducted 14,899 searches of devices carried by international travelers from April through June, a 16.7 percent increase over the prior quarterly record. CBP can examine phones, computers, cameras, and other electronics. The surge coincides with heightened immigration enforcement, larger DHS and ICE budgets, and thousands of arrests. Travelers report long detentions, intrusive device examinations, and alleged denials of entry based on device content. Some European visitors canceled trips and Canadian arrivals have declined for seven straight months. Civil liberties advocates warn the searches chill speech and can affect critics, lawyers, and journalists who carry sensitive information.
From April through June this year, CBP searched 14,899 devices carried by international travelers, according to stats published on the agency's website. While the figures aren't broken down by device type, the CBP has the ability to search phones, computers, cameras, and other electronics. The April-June spike tops the previous highest quarterly figure of at least 12,766 devices, which were searched by CBP officials from January through March 2022, by 16.7 percent.
The increase in phone and device searches at the border comes as the second Trump administration takes aggressive actions on migration, with a vast increase in budget for the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and thousands of arrests taking place. Since the start of the year, people traveling to the US have reported long detentions, intrusive phone searches and allegedly being denied entry due to content on their devices.
Bhandari adds that anyone could be subject to a potential device search, including those who are critical of the administration or lawyers and journalists who may have sensitive information on their devices. "This is essentially a limitless authority that they claim for themselves to search travelers without a warrant to search the full scope of information people carry on them," Bhandari says.
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