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The Terrible Power of U.S. Border Officials They Violated My Rights
- uoaei 7y agoThe submission title is a heavily edited version of the the article's title only because it wouldn't otherwise fit.
- jammygit 7y agoThis is a serious topic and I hope the EFF and civil liberties union make some progress on it
- ncmncm 7y agoWe cannot count on them. Donating money and time to them helps, but to actually fix things takes regime change, which they don't get involved in. We each have to do that.
- mindslight 7y agoIMHO, the only practical avenue for non-catastrophic regime change is to coordinate through encrypted electronic communication, which brings us right back to the EFF - covering us while we build systems that route around these fuckers.
- dudul 7y agoYet another of these awful stories. And yet again, the same "Trump administration blablabla. Since Trump blablabla". This shit has been going on for a long time, Trump seating in the oval office has nothing to do with how CBP is behaving. Making it about which party is currently in power is playing the game these agencies are to happy to see you play. Do people really think that voting democrat in a few years will change anything?
- dctoedt 7y ago> Trump seating in the oval office has nothing to do with how CBP is behaving. Highly doubtful. Practically as soon as the Trump administration came in, they fired the outsider police- and FBI veteran that the Obama administration had brought on to head up the CBP and change its insular- and overly-confrontational culture. The fired outsider was strongly opposed by the border-guards union, which, surprise, had prominently endorsed Trump's candidacy because of his emphasis on border security during the campaign. [0] [0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/border-patrol-chief-resigns-after-clashing-with-powerful-union/2017/01/26/23025c3e-e3f1-11e6-a547-5fb9411d332c_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/borde... (scan down toward the end of the article)
- bonestamp2 7y agoI agree that Trump has influence on CBP, but it's still true that warrantless searches of laptops and phones predate Trump (and Obama). It's not just the US either, I had my laptop searched returning to Canada once. I get that it's in the name of security, but the violation of privacy without any evidence to warrant it, is indecent and dehumanizing. One difference though, Canadian Customs didn't say I wouldn't be allowed to enter the country (I am a Canadian citizen after all). They just said my laptop wouldn't be allowed to enter. I suspect the same is true for the author. Even if they said he wouldn't be allowed to enter, I don't believe that's consistent with US law.
- atemerev 7y agoWhile it is correct that none of the administrations since 2001 has improved anything in this regard, under Trump things are definitely not becoming better. Those who are telling us "but only illegal immigrants suffer", are wrong -- everybody is having it much worse, illegal immigrants (who are people too, and most of them are not doing anything wrong), legal immigrants (waiting times and quotas are getting nearly impassable), and American citizens, who have their rights violated. Some of the Americans still think that most of these things are good, they think that all immigration is intrinsically bad for America, and perhaps they voted for Trump because of that. I, of course, do not agree (as an immigrant myself, from Russia to Switzerland), but as American voters, it is up to them to decide, this is a valid point to start the discussion -- as long as the truth is acknowledged, and not hidden behind statements like "it's only about illegal immigrants".
- dudul 7y agoI totally agree and in a way this is exactly my point. Why blur the discussion with a spiel about Trump when we all know this has been going on for a long time. TSA, CBP, Guitmo, etc Trump didn't set up all of these. By constantly blaming the Trump administration, all these articles are doing is 1)lure anti-Trumpist to believe that all we have to do is vote for the other guy to fix it, 2) alienate Trump-supporters who will feel attacked and basically stop reading.
- justaaron 7y agoThat would be ignoring the very deliberate and massive shift in behaviour from both CBP and Fatherland Security ushered in deliberately and noisily by Trump. It's sufficient to have been an international traveler before Trump and since Trump to bear witness to the night & day difference, as well. It's worse under Trump than even the worst excesses of the Bush Jr. time. It IS politics as this "man" has staked his entire administration upon being mean and harsh and fighting a war with the entire world at once. Spare me.
- jkoudys 7y agoI'd say it's symptoms vs cause. America has grown increasingly xenophobic, and as a result you have a POTUS with a base that rallies around him more when he fear-mongers in direct contradiction to easily verified data. Things definitely weren't going swimmingly before Trump, but trying to separate Trump completely and pretend like Obama's border policies were just as bad is also inaccurate.
- yokaze 7y ago> Do people really think that voting democrat in a few years will change anything? It is the Trump administration, which is responsible how CBP is behaving now. When Obama was in power, it was the Obama administration's responsibility. How would you name the current administration, so it isn't about party politics?
- ncmncm 7y agoThis. It doesn't matter now who created the problem, or who failed to fix it before. What matters now is who is failing to fix it now who could, and who (as it happens) is deliberately making it much worse now. If the only way to fix it is to get that person out as quickly as possible, that is a legitimate thing to say -- any man-baby feelings at risk notwithstanding. If the best way to fix it would be to abolish the Agency, then the only means open is to back whoever would, and oppose whoever wouldn't. One who seeks to abolish the Agency and also fix numerous other disastrous practices is not, therefore, less appealing. Not seeking to fix numerous abuses should be.
- mindslight 7y agoEach team does represent different entrenched interests, and so the results of an election will affect which agencies get worse. Given his focus on marketing "border security" (read: build a wall to keep us in), associating this specific tooth in the totalitarian ratchet to Trump is justified. The equivalence is that it's foolish to be goaded into voting support for the blue team by this specific outrage. A change in team won't reform the long term rot of these particular thugs, but rather just direct the lucrative decay onto other aspects of society.
- brighter2morrow 7y agoYeah the visa processing times that immigrants are experiencing now are way faster than the times I experienced waiting for visa processing during Obama's second term.
- creaghpatr 7y ago>The flippancy would cost me. From then on out, the officers made it clear that I was in for a long delay. Wow, who would have thought that giving attitude to a cop would make the interaction go south??
- _iiu1 7y agono. You don't get it. You literally have no rights with these unconstitutional cops. Wait until you personally experience this sort of thing, as you seem to think that the author "deserved" it. The more I think about it, the more disgusted I am by your comment. I find it highly deliberately ignorant, as if you are directly ignoring the entire point of this story. If a US citizen is not allowed into the USA, where could they possibly be deported to LOL? Constitutional rights? All this from an agency that sounds like something from the 3rd Reich, and created under Bush Jr. Highly unconstitutional, and vested with impunity. Wrongful
- zepto 7y agoIt’s not a question or whether they deserved it or not. When dealing with people, things generally go better if one does so respectfully, regardless of what kind of power they have or whether it is legitimate or not. The converse - that it should be fine to be disrespectful to people who hold state backed power makes no sense that I can see - that seems to be a dehumanizing act with no apparent benefit.
- nugget 7y agoWhatever a Government official can do to you in response to real or perceived disrespect, they can also do to you just because they don't like the way you look or dress or vote. Various forms of Constitutionally protected protest and dissent can often be perceived as disrespect by those against whom they are directed. It's a slippery slope and to me "be respectful or have your rights violated" is a poor standard.
- zepto 7y ago
- krak12 7y agoThis should be on top of HN
- lazyjones 7y agoWhile this is obviously a scandalous situation, I don’t believe journalists should get a better treatment regarding their personal information and photos. You know the legislation, you take private stuff across the border, it’s fair game. So don’t do it. Journalists should know this.
- m463 7y agoBut there's one thing about this story: "It happened 33,295 times last year." So, while it happened to this journalist and he reported on it, the 32k other people did not report on it. So, maybe turn this around a bit: maybe the CBP should understand if they do it to a journalist, he might report on it. Also, maybe CPB is just doing their jobs and journalists shouldn't get better treatment, but remember they ARE one of the checks and balances on unchecked power/authority/corruption in any government. Other governments know this and journalists are ruthlessly hunted in other countries.
- lazyjones 7y ago> So, maybe turn this around a bit: maybe the CBP should understand if they do it to a journalist, he might report on it. What makes you think they don’t understand that? It’s not the first such account by a journalist (e.g. https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/bbc-journalist-questioned-by-us-border-agents-devices-searched/ https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/bbc-journalist-... ). I believe the privacy risk of traveling to the USA, UK, China and other such countries is widely known. It’s foolish to assume you get special treatment for that as a journalist, that’s my point.
- noident 7y agoIf you're a frequent international traveler to or from the USA, the EFF Travel Guide is a must-read. https://www.eff.org/wp/digital-privacy-us-border-2017 https://www.eff.org/wp/digital-privacy-us-border-2017 tl;dr for American citizens: encrypt everything and power off your phone and laptop before entering border checkpoints, you cannot be denied entry. tl;dr for everybody else (including green cards): either carry burner devices or ship your devices to your destination. Otherwise, you must be prepared to accept an electronic search.
- bonestamp2 7y agoOne important fact that wasn't even mentioned in this article is that some CBP powers extend for 100 miles from every border: https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/1084/~/legal-authority-for-the-border-patrol https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/1084/~/legal-au... That means, at any time, they can question ~63.5% of the population: https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/05/who-lives-in-border-patrols-100-mile-zone-probably-you-mapped/558275/ https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/05/who-lives-in-border-p...
- ncmncm 7y agoAnd, indeed, harass. With impunity.
- tptacek 7y agoThat is not in fact true, and was in fact litigated in front of the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, 3/4 of the Internet believes it to be true because the ACLU fundraises on that claim.
- jhart99 7y agoCan you point me in the direction of that case. I can only find cases where the border zone was upheld in arguments before the Supreme Court in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Martinez-Fuerte https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Martinez-Fu...
- tptacek 7y agoThis is a conflict reporter in the Intercept, of all publications, that did not realize that his electronics would be subject to near-limitless search at the US border. As a result, he apparently potentially compromised sources. There is no responsible way to carry this kind of data over the border. There are no tricks to this. Encryption has nothing to say about it. Any computer or phone or tablet you bring through the border should be a burner, or at least something you can cheerfully part with if confiscated.
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- xtat 7y agoWhy is this flagged?
- rpenm 7y agoIt astounds me that an article about government officials going on an unwarranted fishing expedition through a journalist's entire digital life would be flagged on HN. Particularly when previous stories of CBP demanding access to tech workers' devices have been heavily upvoted in the past. My guess is that the flaggers reacted purely to the headline, and never read the story. The headline pattern matches to "culture war", so they flagged it and moved on.