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Congress Proposes to End Electronics Seizures at Border |
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Written by Chelsey Drysdale
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Monday, 06 October 2008 |
WASHINGTON, DC – Congress has proposed legislation that would end the US Customs' and Homeland Security's right to seize laptops, phones, cameras and other electronics when US nationals enter the country.
Bills introduced last week by Sen. Russell Feingold (D-WI) and Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) provide traditional legal citizen protections to residents crossing borders back into the US, including standards of probable cause before electronics equipment can be searched, and require warrants for search and seizure.
Customs currently does not need suspicion of wrongdoing to search or seize electronics. Many victims of searches claim racial profiling.
In its defense, Customs asserts only 40 laptops were searched out of 17 million travelers over a two-week period, and not all of those were prevented from entering the country. However, the situation has been troubling enough warrant attention from Congress.
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