In airports and terrestrial borders throughout the country, tourists and other visitors arriving in the United States have claimed that they have been trapped in the “reinforced research” campaign of the Trump government. Even legal immigrants, such as the holders of a Green Card, and the naturalized citizens have been separated to submit them to additional interrogations and records.
This has raised questions about the best practices to cross the United States, the rights of travelers on the border and the legality of device and luggage records.
Here are some things you should know before visiting or returning to the United States, as a tourist, legal or citizen resident.
Are you a visitor with a visa or is it? I should match your travel plans.
According to the American Union of Civil Libertads, US border agents have “broad discretion” to denied entry. That decision can be taken by a suspicion that the person is entering the country with a different purpose from that says his visa or his electronic travel authorization system (this); For example, he has a tourist visa, but it seems that maybe he is planning to work.
“We have seen people arrested just to say on LinkedIn that they are ‘open to work,” said Michael Wildes, a New Jersey immigration lawyer who took care of Melania Trump’s immigration to the United States. “That serves as proof that they do not go to Disneyland or a wedding.”
Cheryl David, immigration lawyer in New York, stressed that the rules to enter the United States have not changed, but said there is now a clear “zero tolerance policy.”
Even citizens should prepare for additional control.
If doubts arise about the passenger’s travel documents, border agents can get them out of line and submit them to additional control, at which time the luggage and electronic devices can be recorded, such as laptops and mobile phones.
Even Green Card holders and naturalized citizens can be subjected to more controls.
American citizens and permanent legal residents cannot be denied entry to the country for refusing to deliver their devices, but such a negative could lead to a longer customs process, according to ACLU.
Catherine, 67, a naturalized citizen who moved to the United States 45 years ago, said she had never been selected for an additional interrogation when passing through immigration, but that since the beginning of the Trump government they have arrested her twice for reasons that remain without being clear to her. Catherine asked to be identified only by his second name, for fear that his condition of naturalized for speaking would be revoked.
Recently, Catherine returned from Argentina when her husband stopped her at a Dallas airport. The border control was automated, and the passengers scanned the passports to pass through the doors, but when it was time to take a photograph, Catherine appeared a large red x on the screen. Her husband spoke with the border agents and the couple could pass.
Social networks, text chats and other travelers’ records on their devices can be reviewed.
Since border control is technically out of the United States, travelers with visa or with this have a limited capacity to oppose the registration of their electronic devices, according to ACLU, and if they do, they run the risk of the entry.
In general, there are two types of records of an electronic device: manuals and advanced, according to Tom McBrien, lawyer of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a non -profit organization dedicated to privacy on the Internet, based in Washington. Manual records consist of examining an unlocked phone. In general, the courts have considered it equivalent to registering the luggage and have allowed manual records to be made without it being necessary to obtain a court order, McBrien said.
An advanced, or “forensic” search involves connecting an external device to your phone to scan its content. Some federal districts demand a court order for this, while others, said McBrien.
McBrien and other privacy experts recommend deleting from your device everything you do not want someone to read or see before your arrival.
McBrien also said that he recommends that his customers deactivate the Face ID or Touch ID functions of his iPhones, so that more than an agent shaking the phone in front of his face or placing his finger on him to open it. Even better, he said, is to turn off the phone before going through border control, because phones tend to require your full access code when they are turned on again.
If you refuse to unlock the phone when they ask for it, the authorities can confiscate it and most likely they need to obtain a court order to open it, he added. However, visitors can be denied entry into the United States for refusing to unlock their phone.
Wildes said that the main thing looking for the border patrol agents is coherence.
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If a forensic search shows a social media account deactivated, officials can request that it be reactivated, he said. If an email account has recently been deleted, they can request access to it.
Social media have become an important problem, he added, for “so many people who do not realize how processables that can be.”