Apparently, the DHS can seize and search your electronic devices within 100 miles of a US border. That places nearly 2/3 of the population within this zone.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/02/electronics-border-seizures/
The Department of Homeland Security’s civil rights watchdog has concluded that travelers along the nation’s borders may have their electronics seized and the contents of those devices examined for any reason whatsoever — all in the name of national security.
The DHS, which secures the nation’s border, in 2009 announced that it would conduct a “Civil Liberties Impact Assessment” of its suspicionless search-and-seizure policy pertaining to electronic devices “within 120 days.” More than three years later, the DHS office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties published a two-page executive summary of its findings.
“We also conclude that imposing a requirement that officers have reasonable suspicion in order to conduct a border search of an electronic device would be operationally harmful without concomitant civil rights/civil liberties benefits,” the executive summary said.
The memo highlights the friction between today’s reality that electronic devices have become virtual extensions of ourselves housing everything from e-mail to instant-message chats to photos and our papers and effects — juxtaposed against the government’s stated quest for national security.
The President George W. Bush administration first announced the suspicionless, electronics search rules in 2008. The President Barack Obama administration followed up with virtually the same rules a year later. Between 2008 and 2010, 6,500 persons had their electronic devices searched along the U.S. border, according to DHS data.
According to legal precedent, the Fourth Amendment — the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures — does not apply along the border. By the way, the government contends the Fourth-Amendment-Free Zone stretches 100 miles inland from the nation’s actual border.
Civil rights groups like the American Civil Liberties Union suggest that “reasonable suspicion” should be the rule, at a minimum, despite that being a lower standard than required by the Fourth Amendment.
“There should be a reasonable, articulate reason why the search of our electronic devices could lead to evidence of a crime,” Catherine Crump, an ACLU staff attorney, said in a telephone interview. “That’s a low threshold.”
The DHS watchdog’s conclusion isn’t surprising, as the DHS is taking that position in litigation in which the ACLU is challenging the suspicionless, electronic-device searches and seizures along the nation’s borders. But that conclusion nevertheless is alarming considering it came from the DHS civil rights watchdog, which maintains its mission is “promoting respect for civil rights and civil liberties.”
“This is a civil liberties watchdog office. If it is doing its job property, it is supposed to objectively evaluate. It has the power to recommend safeguards to safeguard Americans’ rights,” Crump said. “The office has not done that and the public has the right to know why.”
Toward that goal, the ACLU on Friday filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding to see the full report that the executive summary discusses.
Meantime, a lawsuit the ACLU brought on the issue concerns a New York man whose laptop was seized along the Canadian border in 2010 and returned 11 days later after his attorney complained.
At an Amtrak inspection point, Pascal Abidor showed his U.S. passport to a federal agent. He was ordered to move to the cafe car, where they removed his laptop from his luggage and “ordered Mr. Abidor to enter his password,” according to the lawsuit.
Agents asked him about pictures they found on his laptop, which included Hamas and Hezbollah rallies. He explained that he was earning a doctoral degree at a Canadian university on the topic of the modern history of Shiites in Lebanon.
He was handcuffed and then jailed for three hours while the authorities looked through his computer while numerous agents questioned him, according to the suit, which is pending in New York federal court.
From the ACLU site about the constitution free zones in the US
December 15, 2006
Using data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau
, the ACLU has determined that nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders.
The government is assuming extraordinary powers to stop and search individuals within this zone. This is not just about the border: This ” Constitution-Free Zone” includes most of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas.
Read more
http://www.aclu.org/national-security_technology-and-liberty/are-you-living-constitution-free-zone
BUCKHED says:
Get used to the phrase…. ” Papers Please ” .
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10th February 2013 at 12:07 pm
Eddie says:
Thuggery of the vilest sort. DHSES.
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10th February 2013 at 12:16 pm
Jaffy says:
For most it won’t make any difference cuz they have nothing to hide.
Just try and pull my ithingy from my cold dead hands.
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10th February 2013 at 1:47 pm
nonner says:
(suppressed laughter) i believe i said it before, welcome to my world. living on the border most of my life it was a known fact that we had no rights of the kind spoken of in the constitution. INS, as it was known at the time, could strip search you and perform body cavity searches on women at will. my brother and i were forced to drop our pants and underwear (we were 12 and 14) because just before we approched the inspection stall, i decided i had to go pee in the public bathroom ahead of the entry point. latinos have been protesting these kind of abuses for years and it is – if not gratifying – at least validating that americanos have joined the polemic.
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10th February 2013 at 2:11 pm
nonner says:
the old ones used to laugh at the remote idea that one day americanos would run in fear at the alarm of “la migra!”. i wish they were alive to see it
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10th February 2013 at 2:35 pm
Hollow man says:
Fromthe center f thecountry reaching out past our borders is..”…… Wait…….”… A constitution fee zone. It is a dead document. Not irevelant just dead here in tye good ol USA.
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10th February 2013 at 4:48 pm
ThePessimisticChemist says:
Its just a matter of time until “the borderzone” includes “any area that may harbor a terrorist”…which will be interpreted as anyone who isn’t a mindless drone.
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10th February 2013 at 10:01 am
dabluez says:
Well…I would think that if the Constitution doesn’t apply then that means the 16th Amendment doesn’t either. I don’t see how the electeds can pick and choose which amendments apply whenever they see fit.
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10th February 2013 at 3:51 pm