WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security now allows agents to search and copy electronic materials at the border without suspicion.
Before changing its policy in July 2007, Customs and Border Patrol agents needed probable cause to conduct a search.
The latest change in July 2008 lets agents detain electronic devices and documents for any period of time and copy them with no suspicion.
Searches of laptop computers could reveal “a massive amount of private information such as personal e-mails, financial data or confidential business records,” said Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Marcia Hofmann, according to The Washington Post.
The DHS said it changed its policies to combat terrorism and be more transparent. Critics, though, say the law was changed without adequate public input.
“For 20 years the government has at least implicitly recognized there were some First Amendment restrictions on reading and copying documents,” said Shirin Sinnar, a staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, according to The Post. “It’s disturbing now that the government has jettisoned that policy in favor of one that violates First Amendment rights.”
The new DHS policy also allows CBP agents to share data obtained during a search with other law enforcement agencies if there is suspicion of illegal behavior.
At worst, other law enforcement agencies could theoretically turn this policy “into a loophole” and obtain information for which they ordinarily would need probable cause or reasonable suspicion, said Georgetown University law professor David D. Cole, according to The Post.
Source: The Washington Post
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