Constitutional Law

DHS Releases Policies On Broad Border Searches

The Department of Homeland Security today made public its policies that allow federal agents to seize, without suspicion of criminal activity, travelers’ laptops and other materials at border crossings. The policies from the DHS’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement branches allow federal officers to “search, review, retain, and share certain information possessed by individuals” traveling across borders. Federal agents may seize and examine “documents, books, pamphlets, and other printed material, as well as computers, disks, hard drives, and other electronic or digital storage devices.”

According to the policies, which The Washington Post reported were made public because of pressure from civil liberties and business travel groups, materials seized can be kept “for a reasonable period of time” and shared with other agencies of the federal government. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s policy says such unfettered search and seizure methods are warranted to help discover information regarding “terrorism, narcotics smuggling, and other national security matters ….”

Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) called the policies “alarming” and said he would introduce legislation to require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as to prohibit racial profiling.    

Full post as published by ACS Blog on August 01, 2008 (boomark / email).