The Trump administration is imposing heightened security measures for both US citizens and foreign passengers traveling to the US as of October 26, 2017. These measures will affect approximately 325,000 passengers on more than 2,000 flights every day, according to NPR. The new regulations come after government officials lifted the ban on certain electronic devices this past July, and gave airlines a three-month timeframe to improve security. "The security measures affect all individuals, international passengers and US citizens, traveling to the United States from a last point of departure international location," Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says.
Read moreThe New York Times: “Forced Searches of Phones and Laptops at U.S. Border are Illegal, Lawsuit Claims”
Two civil rights groups filed a lawsuit last week against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on behalf of eleven people whose cellphones and laptops were confiscated or searched at the nation’s border. The lawsuit alleges that their First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated when their devices were seized and searched without a warrant. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed the lawsuit for these eleven individuals, which includes ten American citizens and one permanent resident. These individuals, a journalist, student, US military veteran, artist, and NASA engineer, among others, hope that the lawsuit will force courts to place limits on the agency’s broad authority to search all travelers entering the country, including US citizens. The lawsuit argues that the current laws in place that established rules for searching luggage for all individuals (unless exempt by diplomatic status) regardless of nationality should not apply to electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops because these types of devices contain immense amounts of personal data and information.
Read moreNew York Times: "Border Officers Nearly Double Searches of Electronic Devices, US Says"
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the border and airports have almost doubled their searches of electronic devices for individuals entering the US in the last six months, according to data released last week by CBP.
The data shows that CBP searched the electronic devices of 14,993 arriving international travelers since October of fiscal year 2017, with only 8,383 devices searched during the same period of the previous fiscal year. CBP notes that while the number of searches did increase, it only affects 0.008 percent of the approximately 189.6 million travelers arriving to the US. CBP process more than 1 million travelers arriving in the US every day.
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