Independent photographer stopped for secondary screening, devices seized

June 28, 2019
Independent photographer Tim Stegmaier was stopped for secondary screening and had his electronic devices confiscated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on June 28, 2019.Stegmaier was flying in from Shanghai, China, to Detroit, Michigan, after a photojournalism trip to the Philippines when CBP officers pulled him aside for additional screening. In an account published by the ACLU of Ohio titled, “Photographs and the First Amendment. My Harrowing Journey Through U.S. Customs,” Stegmaier wrote that the officers didn’t provide any explanation …

Customs officers search reporter’s car and phone at Canadian border

August 3, 2017
Anne Elizabeth Moore — a cultural critic and reporter who has written for Salon, Teen Vogue, Jacobin, and The New Inquiry — was driving across the Ambassador Bridge into Detroit, Michigan, on Aug. 3, 2017, when she was stopped and questioned by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.Moore told the Committee to Protect Journalists that she had crossed the border earlier that day to cover a cultural event in Toronto. During this first crossing, Moore recalled, the officer had asked …