DHS Office Can Seize Your Electronics Based On A Hunch


It has been revealed that the DHS office, or Department of Homeland Security, has written a report on the practice of seizing electronics like laptops from individuals crossing the US border. The report has concluded that “intuition and hunch” to be justification enough for such practices.

New laws signed by Bush in 2008 were among the first to grant wider freedom for suspicionless confiscation and search of electronics. Since then, Obama has continued to authorize similar laws. The DHS reports that 6,500 people were subjected to such searches along the US borders between 2008 and 2010.

Many individuals, US citizens and legal visitors alike, have shared accounts of DHS seized items taking weeks, sometimes even months, to be returned and in some cases, altered or damaged.

Several lawsuits have been threatened, the largest of which is being leveled by the American Civil Liberties Union after acquiring the DHS report following a Freedom of Information Act request.

After reviewing the report from the DHS, the ACLU has begun litigation, sighting that the DHS is willingly violating Fourth Amendment rights, which protect against unreasonable search and seizures.

In the report such Constitutional legal concerns are addressed by the Department of Homeland Security, who explain that these exceptions are legal in border areas and cautions the federal government against clarifying Fourth Amendment rights in this respect too strictly.

It has pointed out that such exceptions for these types of special seizures has been argued to be valid as far as 100 miles into the US border, a detail the ACLU finds concerning.

The ACLU has stated that the DHS office should adopt a search and seizure standard based on “reasonable suspicion,” a practice some argue still falls short of the rights guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.

[Image via ShutterStock]

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