
The Terrible Power of U.S. Border Officials They Violated My Rights - uoaei
https://theintercept.com/2019/06/22/cbp-border-searches-journalists/
======
bonestamp2
One important fact that wasn't even mentioned in this article is that some CBP
powers extend for 100 miles from every border:

[https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/1084/~/legal-
au...](https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/1084/~/legal-authority-
for-the-border-patrol)

That means, at any time, they can question ~63.5% of the population:

[https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/05/who-lives-in-
border-p...](https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/05/who-lives-in-border-
patrols-100-mile-zone-probably-you-mapped/558275/)

~~~
tptacek
That is not in fact true, and was in fact litigated in front of the Supreme
Court. Unfortunately, 3/4 of the Internet believes it to be true because the
ACLU fundraises on that claim.

~~~
bonestamp2
Which part is not true? It literally says on the .gov page that I linked to
that they can:

"board and search for aliens in any vessel within the territorial waters of
the United States and any railcar, aircraft, conveyance, or vehicle. 8 CFR 287
(a)(1) defines reasonable distance as 100 air miles from the border"

~~~
tptacek
I'm sure there is a .GOV page that says that. The Supreme Court says no,
that's not how it works.

~~~
mud_dauber
I returned from a vacation trip to the Brownsville TX area last year, and
spent roughly an hour getting through a Border Patrol checkpoint roughly 100
miles north of our departure point on TX route 77. I can assure you that we
were interrogated (politely) about our citizenship.

------
jammygit
This is a serious topic and I hope the EFF and civil liberties union make some
progress on it

~~~
ncmncm
We cannot count on them.

Donating money and time to them helps, but to actually fix things takes regime
change, which they don't get involved in. We each have to do that.

~~~
mindslight
IMHO, the only practical avenue for non-catastrophic regime change is to
coordinate through encrypted electronic communication, which brings us right
back to the EFF - covering us while we build systems that route around these
fuckers.

------
tptacek
This is a conflict reporter _in the Intercept_ , of all publications, that did
not realize that his electronics would be subject to near-limitless search at
the US border. As a result, he apparently potentially compromised sources.
There is no responsible way to carry this kind of data over the border. There
are no tricks to this. Encryption has nothing to say about it. Any computer or
phone or tablet you bring through the border should be a burner, or at least
something you can cheerfully part with if confiscated.

------
uoaei
The submission title is a heavily edited version of the the article's title
only because it wouldn't otherwise fit.

------
creaghpatr
>The flippancy would cost me. From then on out, the officers made it clear
that I was in for a long delay.

Wow, who would have thought that giving attitude to a cop would make the
interaction go south??

~~~
_iiu1
no. You don't get it. You literally have no rights with these unconstitutional
cops. Wait until you personally experience this sort of thing, as you seem to
think that the author "deserved" it. The more I think about it, the more
disgusted I am by your comment. I find it highly deliberately ignorant, as if
you are directly ignoring the entire point of this story. If a US citizen is
not allowed into the USA, where could they possibly be deported to LOL?
Constitutional rights? All this from an agency that sounds like something from
the 3rd Reich, and created under Bush Jr. Highly unconstitutional, and vested
with impunity. Wrongful

~~~
zepto
It’s not a question or whether they deserved it or not. When dealing with
people, things generally go better if one does so respectfully, regardless of
what kind of power they have or whether it is legitimate or not.

The converse - that it should be fine to be disrespectful to people who hold
state backed power makes no sense that I can see - that seems to be a
dehumanizing act with no apparent benefit.

~~~
nugget
Whatever a Government official can do to you in response to real or perceived
disrespect, they can also do to you just because they don't like the way you
look or dress or vote. Various forms of Constitutionally protected protest and
dissent can often be perceived as disrespect by those against whom they are
directed. It's a slippery slope and to me "be respectful or have your rights
violated" is a poor standard.

~~~
zepto
Agreed, and everyone has the right to conduct protest or civil disobedience.

If one chooses to engage in activism, then it’s worth recognizing that this is
what you are doing and that they will be likely consequences.

It seems, before engaging in a protest, to be a good idea to think about
whether it’s likely to be effective or not.

For example, before deliberately being disrespectful to an individual
government employee, why not consider whether it would be better to be
cooperative in that moment and then make a donation to a group that supports
political change in that particular area?

------
xtat
Why is this flagged?

~~~
rpenm
It astounds me that an article about government officials going on an
unwarranted fishing expedition through a journalist's entire digital life
would be flagged on HN.

Particularly when previous stories of CBP demanding access to tech workers'
devices have been heavily upvoted in the past.

My guess is that the flaggers reacted purely to the headline, and never read
the story. The headline pattern matches to "culture war", so they flagged it
and moved on.

------
noident
If you're a frequent international traveler to or from the USA, the EFF Travel
Guide is a must-read.

[https://www.eff.org/wp/digital-privacy-us-
border-2017](https://www.eff.org/wp/digital-privacy-us-border-2017)

tl;dr for American citizens: encrypt everything and power off your phone and
laptop before entering border checkpoints, you cannot be denied entry.

tl;dr for everybody else (including green cards): either carry burner devices
or ship your devices to your destination. Otherwise, you must be prepared to
accept an electronic search.

------
dudul
Yet another of these awful stories. And yet again, the same "Trump
administration blablabla. Since Trump blablabla".

This shit has been going on for a _long_ time, Trump seating in the oval
office has _nothing_ to do with how CBP is behaving. Making it about which
party is currently in power is playing the game these agencies are to happy to
see you play. Do people really think that voting democrat in a few years will
change anything?

~~~
atemerev
While it is correct that none of the administrations since 2001 has improved
anything in this regard, under Trump things are definitely not becoming
better. Those who are telling us "but only illegal immigrants suffer", are
wrong -- everybody is having it much worse, illegal immigrants (who are people
too, and most of them are not doing anything wrong), legal immigrants (waiting
times and quotas are getting nearly impassable), and American citizens, who
have their rights violated.

Some of the Americans still think that most of these things are good, they
think that all immigration is intrinsically bad for America, and perhaps they
voted for Trump because of that. I, of course, do not agree (as an immigrant
myself, from Russia to Switzerland), but as American voters, it is up to them
to decide, this is a valid point to start the discussion -- as long as the
truth is acknowledged, and not hidden behind statements like "it's only about
illegal immigrants".

~~~
sokoloff
> illegal immigrants (who are people too, and most of them are not doing
> anything wrong)

I'm having a hard time understanding this point. Aren't _illegal immigrants_
by definition doing/have done _something_ wrong by virtue of proper inclusion
in that set?

~~~
jkoudys
Sure, but the choice to include them in that set is what's in question.
Someone who crosses the border and makes an asylum claim may have technically
made an illegal entry, but their status is under review to determine if
they're a refugee or not. Most refugees can't simply make a claim from the
country that they're fleeing, because the government that they're running away
from isn't going to help them get their documents in order. Plus they're in
danger while they're there. They're removing the imminent threat and waiting
here while their status is sorted out.

~~~
sokoloff
I am not an expert in the law, but I do not consider someone who has
legitimately and properly applied for asylum to be an illegal immigrant (a
term which to me [and I believe most others] describes an economic migrant who
has failed to follow the established practices for legal immigration).

~~~
jkoudys
You wouldn't, but many do. That's exactly the problem - borders are always
going to be a legal grey area, so many will focus on crossing the border
illegally, even if they make an asylum claim after they arrive.

------
lazyjones
While this is obviously a scandalous situation, I don’t believe journalists
should get a better treatment regarding their personal information and photos.
You know the legislation, you take private stuff across the border, it’s fair
game. So don’t do it. Journalists should know this.

~~~
m463
But there's one thing about this story: "It happened 33,295 times last year."

So, while it happened to this journalist and he reported on it, the 32k other
people did not report on it.

So, maybe turn this around a bit: maybe the CBP should understand if they do
it to a journalist, he might report on it.

Also, maybe CPB is just doing their jobs and journalists shouldn't get better
treatment, but remember they ARE one of the checks and balances on unchecked
power/authority/corruption in any government. Other governments know this and
journalists are ruthlessly hunted in other countries.

~~~
lazyjones
> _So, maybe turn this around a bit: maybe the CBP should understand if they
> do it to a journalist, he might report on it._

What makes you think they don’t understand that? It’s not the first such
account by a journalist (e.g. [https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-
incidents/bbc-journalist-...](https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-
incidents/bbc-journalist-questioned-by-us-border-agents-devices-searched/) ).

I believe the privacy risk of traveling to the USA, UK, China and other such
countries is widely known. It’s foolish to assume you get special treatment
for that as a journalist, that’s my point.

