It seems surreal to be writing about protecting our personal information when crossing the border. That’s something I haven’t thought about since crossing into China from Hong Kong multiple times a year years ago. But today with our border agents suddenly looking at anyone with a tattoo or strange name as a potential illegal immigrant, it’s possible for anyone of us to get caught up in the zealotry and chaos.
Nevertheless, we should all know what our rights as U.S. citizens are when crossing into the U.S. from outside the country, especially when we carry computers, phones and tablets with so much of our personal and work information easily accessible. I’m speaking about our rights based on the law today and am assuming these laws are still being followed.
First, you cannot be denied entry – As a U.S. citizen, you cannot be denied re-entry back into the country. That’s your fundamental right — you can always come home.
Your devices can be searched – Upon your entry, you might be stopped, and your devices could be searched without a warrant. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents are permitted to search your phone, laptop, and tablet — including looking through your emails, texts, photos, address book, calendar, and files if they so choose.
Searches are allowed based on the “border search exception” to the Fourth Amendment, where courts have ruled that searches at U.S. borders and airports are “reasonable by default,” even without a warrant or any suspicion.
There are two types of device searches they can conduct:
1. Basic Search – Without suspicion: CBP can ask to see your phone and scroll through it.
2. Advanced Search – With some suspicion: Agents can connect your device to a forensic tool to copy the data for further analysis.
If you are asked to hand over your devices for a search, just do it. If the agent starts questioning you beyond the normal nicities, you are allowed to request a lawyer be present for any questioning.
Even though you must hand the devices over, you can refuse to unlock them if you are asked. The agent might return them to you or decide to hold onto them for up to several weeks and be subject to further questioning. In that case you will enter the U.S., but leave your devices behind with the agents.
Device options: Remove data, wipe clean, or use throwaway devices
If that gives you pause you may want to prepare your devices before arriving back to the U.S. to minimize discovery, or, better yet, use devices that you don’t mind leaving behind or even discarding. At minimum, you can turn off your device unlocking using facial and fingerprint recognition, so if you decide not to unlock your device, the agent will not be able to unlock it on their own.
If you decide you want to take the devices you use regularly, you can prepare them in advance to minimize potential issues. That means removing sensitive data stored on them and using cloud services to store your data off the phone and laptop. In that case be sure your are not syncing the device to the computer. This approach can be a pain to do because once you remove your photos, address book, calendar, chat log, etc., the devices may not be very useful.
A second option is to back up your devices and then wipe them clean, restoring them to factory conditions before arriving home. That’s a process we occasionally do when we need to troubleshoot our phone or computer. Of course you may arouse suspicion with empty devices, but there’s nothing there to incriminate you.
A safer and simpler option is to just bring different devices than what you normally use, such as an inexpensive phone and a Chromebook or a used computer. If you don’t have either, you can purchase both for uas little as $100 to $200 from Amazon and buy a sim card to activate your phone for the time needed. (A Chromebook offers some advantages over a notebook. It’s designed to store minimal data and use Google apps in the cloud.) Before you return you can discard your devices if you have any worries, or if you do enter with them, not be inconvenienced if your devices are taken away.
These are strange times that are getting stranger every day. One of the worries among some is DOGE’s effort to combine our personal data from each government agency to create a master profile and then use AI to characterize each of us. In other words, create a surveillance state just like China. If they succeed, our experience at the border might turn into something very different from what it is today because they won’t need to check our devices to know all about us.