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Does anyone know of a case where a search of electronic material beyond physical inspection actually resulted in any illegal materials? I don't doubt that our
by Joking_Phantom 9y ago
Does anyone know of a case where a search of electronic material beyond physical inspection actually resulted in any illegal materials?
I don't doubt that our current body of legislation and judicial precedents make this practice legal, but I honestly can't see this policy actually doing anything.
The classic case of illegal electronic information would be child pornography - but who would be stupid enough to bring it with them to the border for consumption or for trafficking, when the Internet exists? If they were to bring it to the border, what's to stop them from encrypting it not divulging the key?
Beyond C.P., I can imagine certain trade secrets being illegal, like Samuel Slater back in the day. But that was to the benefit of America, and the British were right to suspect him due to his position giving him the capability to leak information that was held secret by state laws. American analogues obviously enforce the unwanted disclosure of state secrets and such based on identities and institutions prior to crossing the border - which makes what the CBP are doing redundant at best.
Terrorists do not need anything outside of this country to operate. We've seen domestic and foreign terrorists alike build their bombs with legal sources of information and material.
IMO, what happened was a power hungry busy body official in the CBP spearheaded this policy. Just another case of crappy people in crappy politics, making crappy solutions to nonexistent problems. It is fortunate that the rest of humanity will be reasonable enough to revert such egregious and useless wastes of resources.
- KGIII 9y agoTop link, quite recent, thousands of results: http://dailycaller.com/2017/08/17/handful-of-refugees-caught-bringing-child-porn-across-ny-quebec-border/ http://dailycaller.com/2017/08/17/handful-of-refugees-caught...
- Joking_Phantom 9y agoThank you for the reply, but these are refugees crossing into Canada. Not American citizens entering the United States. I don't see thousands of results either. A quick google search revealed absolutely nothing fruitful - 3 articles about the refugees seeking asylum in Canada being deported after CP discovery, 1 American citizen charged with CP found in his residence, 1 American citizen charged by a Saskatchewan provincial court, and 1 former Border Patrol agent caught as part of a Texan initiative that counters crimes against children. Not a single example comes to mind of an American citizen entering or leaving with illegal electronic information. If these searches were actually doing anything useful, I'm sure an organized effort to promote its success would've been underway.