Customs and Border Protection agents searched nearly 15,000 devices from April through June of this year, a nearly 17 percent spike over the previous three-month high in 2022. "The real issue is the chilling effect it has on all travelers."

United States Custom and Border Protection officials have sweeping powers to search anyone’s phone when they are entering the country—including US citizens. Newly released figures show that over the past three months, CBP officials have been searching more phones and other devices than ever before.

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. In recent months, some European travelers have canceled trips to the US, while the number of Canadian visitors to the US has dropped for seven consecutive months.

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  • pezhore@infosec.pub
    1·
    2 days ago

    Hey, are you me? Work is making me travel internationally later this year from the US to the EU. My plan is to wipe an old pixel and install graphene os.

    I legit do not have Facebook, twitter, or bluesky accounts - only Lemmy and Mastodon. Those apps will be installed under the non-default account (along with signal and proton apps), leaving the primary account with Google play installed and some simple apps like Google maps, Spotify, etc.

    Before I leave the plane after arriving back in the states, I’ll blow away the non-default account, leaving the relatively clean default account.

    I’m also traveling with my work phone, but that’s really locked down with their MDM software.

    Both phones have lock passwords, I’ll remove the work bio unlocks before leaving the US.

    I may install LinkedIn so there’s something to find, but probably not.

    Hope this helps.