first_published_at,last_published_at,title,slug,latest_revision_created_at,charges,legal_orders,updates,categories,links,equipment_seized,equipment_broken,targeted_journalists,authors,date,exact_date_unknown,city,state,latitude,longitude,body,introduction,teaser,teaser_image,primary_video,image_caption,arrest_status,arresting_authority,release_date,detention_date,unnecessary_use_of_force,case_number,case_statuses,case_type,status_of_seized_equipment,is_search_warrant_obtained,actor,border_point,target_us_citizenship_status,denial_of_entry,stopped_previously,did_authorities_ask_for_device_access,did_authorities_ask_about_work,assailant,was_journalist_targeted,charged_under_espionage_act,subpoena_type,subpoena_statuses,name_of_business,third_party_business,legal_order_target,legal_order_type,legal_order_venue,status_of_prior_restraint,mistakenly_released_materials,type_of_denial,targeted_institutions,tags,target_nationality,workers_whose_communications_were_obtained,politicians_or_public_figures_involved 2023-11-09 18:38:48.552919+00:00,2023-11-09 18:45:17.705788+00:00,Documentarian returning from film festival questioned for second time,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/documentarian-returning-from-film-festival-questioned-for-second-time/,2023-11-09 18:45:17.590459+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Michael Rowley (Independent),,2023-03-24,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"
Independent filmmaker Michael Rowley was flagged for additional security screening and questioned about his documentary work for the second time, on this occasion upon arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on March 24, 2023.
Rowley was first stopped in October 2019 when returning from his film screening in the West Bank city of Ramallah, via Tel Aviv, Israel. At that time, a plainclothes officer questioned him about the content of his first documentary, which focuses on the lives of young Palestinian men, as well as about the characters in the film and his methods of making it.
Rowley told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in November 2023 that he had traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, for the world premiere of his latest film, “Praying for Armageddon,” from March 17 to 24. When passing through passport control at JFK Airport, Rowley was again flagged for secondary screening and directed to an interview room for questioning.
The officer who questioned him indicated that the filmmaker had been added to a watchlist of some kind, and that she had reviewed the notes from the questioning on his previous trip.
“She said, ‘So you’re in our system because of someone that you filmed with,’” Rowley added. He told the Tracker that he believes she was alluding to the man he had been asked to identify when questioned in 2019. She also asked about whether he had traveled to any “places of interest” while he was abroad. When asked to elaborate she specifically named Iran.
He said he was released after about 30 minutes, but that when he obtained the boarding pass for the next leg of his travels it was marked with “SSSS” — secondary security screening selection. Rowley said he was then subjected to a full-body pat-down, an extensive search of his belongings and was asked to demonstrate that his laptop and cellphone functioned, which delayed him an additional hour.
In April, Rowley said he filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Traveler Redress Inquiry Program in an effort to prevent further security screenings.
“It is clear from the questions that [Customs and Border Protection] officials have asked me that I am being singled out for questioning and additional security screening due to my First Amendment-protected journalistic and filmmaking activities,” Rowley wrote in his complaint, which asks that he be removed from any watchlist that he may have been added to.
Rowley told the Tracker that during the two trips that he has taken since, he has not been stopped for additional security or questioning, but that his experiences had affected his reporting.
“I was in the early stages of working on a new documentary here in Dallas, which I decided to put on hiatus indefinitely because of the realization of being on a watchlist and for fear of bringing government attention to the characters in the film,” Rowley said. “It certainly had a chilling effect on me and my work.”
Documentarian Michael Rowley was questioned for the second time by U.S. border authorities when flying into New York, New York, on March 24, 2023. A plainclothes officer said he was “in [their] system” because of someone he filmed with in the West Bank.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,John F. Kennedy International Airport,U.S. citizen,False,True,no,yes,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,United States,, 2021-10-21 16:25:41.843515+00:00,2021-10-21 16:26:14.693392+00:00,Freelance journalist questioned about journalism at Portland airport,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-questioned-about-journalism-at-portland-airport/,2021-10-21 16:26:14.640930+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Sergio Olmos (Freelance),,2021-10-18,False,Portland,Oregon (OR),45.52345,-122.67621,"Freelance journalist Sergio Olmos said he was subjected to secondary screening and questioning about his journalistic credentials while re-entering the United States in Portland, Oregon, on Oct. 18, 2021.
Olmos, who did not respond to a request for comment, wrote on Twitter shortly after 7 p.m. that he “went through an extended security check” by U.S. Customs and Border Protection after landing at Portland International Airport.
Just went through an extended security check at CBP at PDX where the officer asked, with notepad in hand, where I went to journalism school.
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) October 19, 2021
I said it was none of his business, and so out came my underwear from my backpack.
“The officer asked, with notepad in hand, where I went to journalism school,” Olmos wrote. “I said it was none of his business, and so out came my underwear from my backpack.”
In a subsequent tweet, Olmos said a CBP officer searched his bag for approximately an hour with a supervisor watching, and refused to provide Olmos his name when asked. It was not immediately clear from Olmos’s posts whether he plans to file a complaint with the CBP Office of Internal Affairs.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented nearly 50 instances of journalists stopped at the border for secondary screening, asked intrusive questions about their work or been subjected to searches or seizures of their electronic devices. Find all instances of border stops here.
Ryan Devereaux, who reports for The Intercept, was stopped and told “You are not a journalist” by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official at the Arizona border with Mexico on April 30, 2021, as he returned from covering a protest in Nogales, Mexico.
Devereaux, who was traveling with photojournalist Ash Ponders, said that after a long wait at the border, officials called Ponders first for processing. According to Devereaux, Ponders and a CBP official were deep in a long conversation and disagreement when the official tried to take their phone. The photojournalist managed to lock it.
“The officer reached for it. Ash was then taken to a group holding cell and I was called forward,” Devereaux told the Tracker.
Devereaux said the same officer then asked what he was doing in Nogales. “I told her I was a journalist and working in Nogales that day,” he said.
A second officer appeared and asked Devereaux what he did for a living. “I said I was a journalist who covers border issues and that I was in town covering an asylum protest,” he said. “I had already produced my passport. I was told to produce evidence that I was a journalist. I gave the officers an Intercept business card with my name on it.”
At this point, Devereaux said he was told by a border official that he was not a journalist and was taken to the same cell where Ponders was being held.
“After handing over our belongings, which sat on a table and were not moved, we sat in the cell with a handful of other detainees,” Devereaux said. “Eventually I was told I could go. I was never questioned.”
Devereaux said he was told he could not wait in the area for Ponders but must wait outside.
After being released, Devereux tweeted that CPB officials should not be harassing journalists “I was just taken into secondary screening after being told I was “not a journalist.” @ashponders is still being detained. Going on an hour now.”
.@CBPArizona should not be hassling working journalists passing through the Nogales port of entry for work.
— Ryan Devereaux (@rdevro) April 30, 2021
I was just taken into secondary screening after being told I was “not a journalist.” @ashponders is still being detained. Going on an hour now.
Ponders, whose case is documented here, was strip-searched and held for 2 1/2 to three hours before being released, the photojournalist told the Tracker.
CPB didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Photojournalist Ash Ponders, whose work has appeared in The Intercept, The New York Times and other publications, was stopped for secondary screening and searched at the U.S. border after reporting on a protest in Nogales, Mexico, on April 30, 2021.
Ponders told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that they were strip searched by an admitting officer from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Arizona at the Morley Gate in Nogales on the Arizona/Mexico border. Ponders’ phone was taken away, and they were told by a border agent that they weren’t a journalist, after being asked what they did, and responding with “photojournalist”.
“They did ask what I had been doing in Mexico, and I said I had been covering a march,” Ponders said.
While looking at their passport, an officer asked Ponders what they did for a living in Spanish. “I answered in English. And then someone came up over her shoulder and started...there was like, an immediate anger, frustration on their part.”
The officials wanted to see images from the journalist’s camera, but Ponders had already taken the memory card out of the camera.
Ponders tried to show the officer the commission for the story. “And when I tried to suggest I had a letter from my editor on my phone he yanked it out of my hand (my index finger was on the power button so as he pulled it out of my hand it locked).”
The photographer was traveling with Intercept reporter Ryan Devereaux, who also was stopped.
In a back room, another officer told Ponders to put their cameras and fanny pack on a table, before frisking the photographer.
An officer questioned Ponders, who told her their city of birth, what they were doing in Nogales, and said they had traveled to and from Mexico many times.
Eventually Devereaux was released. When he asked to stay until Ponders was released, too, he was told to wait outside.
“@CBPArizona should not be hassling working journalists passing through the Nogales port of entry for work,” Devereux tweeted just after being released: “I was just taken into secondary screening after being told I was “not a journalist.” @ashponders is still being detained. Going on an hour now.”
Ponders said an officer then had them remove their hat, glasses, mask, shoes and belt, and went through these while another officer watched.
“He then asked me to pull down my pants and he felt around my genitals,” Ponders said. “And then having come up very empty (I’m quite boring) he told me to pull up my pants and get dressed. I did,” said Ponders.
CBP didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Ponders said they were held at the border for between 2 ½ to three hours. An officer had to run outside to give Ponders back their passport, they said.
Ponders, who regularly crosses the U.S.-Mexico border on assignment, said being stopped at the border was a regular occurrence. “It's not every time and it's not even most of the time. But it's enough that it's something that I plan for.”
Independent filmmaker Michael Rowley was questioned about his documentary work on the lives of young Palestinian men upon arriving at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in Texas on Oct. 10, 2019.
Rowley told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he had flown to Tel Aviv, Israel, to attend a screening in the West Bank city of Ramallah for his debut documentary “Hurdle.” After landing back in the United States, the automated machines at U.S. Customs flagged his picture with a black “X,” requiring him to report to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent for further screening.
After sitting in a waiting room for 30 minutes, Rowley said an agent who did not identify himself directed him into an interview room for questioning. The plainclothes officer had the documentary’s website pulled up on a screen in view of Rowley and questioned him for about an hour before he was released.
The official asked him about why he was interested in Palestine, what the film was about and whether Israeli security forces had any issues with him making the documentary. “This U.S. official then asked me specific questions about the content of my documentary film, the characters in it and my methods for making the film,” Rowley said.
He added that he was specifically asked to identify one of the men who appeared in the film’s trailer and about why he had submitted endorsements for the visa applications of the documentary’s three main characters so they could attend the U.S. premiere.
He was also questioned about a past layover in Moscow, Russia, and whether he had a meeting with anyone while there.
Rowley was stopped for secondary screening again in March 2023 when returning from a trip to Denmark. He was questioned about his journalistic work, with an officer informing him that he was in their system “due to someone he had filmed with.”
Rowley told the Tracker that he filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Traveler Redress Inquiry Program in April 2023 after speaking with an attorney from the ACLU in an effort to prevent further security screenings.
“It is clear from the questions that CBP officials have asked me that I am being singled out for questioning and additional security screening due to my First Amendment-protected journalistic and filmmaking activities,” Rowley wrote in his complaint, which asks that he be removed from any watchlist that he may have been added to.
Rowley told the Tracker in November 2023 that during the two trips that he has taken since, he has not been stopped for additional security or questioning, but that his experiences had affected his reporting.
“I was in the early stages of working on a new documentary here in Dallas, which I decided to put on hiatus indefinitely because of the realization of being on a watchlist and for fear of bringing government attention to the characters in the film,” Rowley said. “It certainly had a chilling effect on me and my work.”
Documentary filmmaker Michael Rowley, seen here at the West Bank screening of his film “Hurdle,” was questioned about the film, methods of filming it and the characters in it upon returning to the United States on Oct. 10, 2019.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,Dallas Fort Worth International Airport,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,United States,, 2019-10-09 14:52:35.106536+00:00,2024-01-24 22:04:36.148549+00:00,CBP officer withholds journalist’s passport until he agrees to say he writes 'propaganda',https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cbp-officer-withholds-journalists-passport-until-he-agrees-to-say-he-writes-propaganda/,2024-01-24 22:04:35.957892+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Ben Watson (Defense One),,2019-10-03,False,Dulles,Virginia (VA),None,None,"Ben Watson, a news editor for Defense One, was harassed by a U.S. immigration official when arriving at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 3, 2019. At passport control, a Customs and Border Protection officer asked Watson four times, “You write propaganda, right?” The officer withheld Watson’s passport until he gave an affirmative answer.
Watson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that things seemed normal as he passed through permanent resident reentry aisle No. 17 at around 4 p.m., though he noticed the CBP officer on duty was taking twice as long as normal with each customs interview.
In an account of the incident for Defense One, Watson wrote that after he answered a few standard questions about undeclared goods, the interaction took an unusual and unsettling turn.
After telling the officer that he is a journalist, the officer asked, “So you write propaganda, right?”
Watson told the Tracker that at first he wasn’t sure the officer was serious. “When I saw this smirk on his face and with the way he was looking at me, I realized this was not a joke.”
Watson responded no, that he was a journalist and that in his work covering national security he uses many of the same skills he used as a U.S. Army public affairs officer. “Some would argue, that’s propaganda,” Watson recalled saying.
The CBP officer persisted, asking a second time whether Watson is a journalist and asking again, “You write propaganda, right?”
Watson wrote that he paused briefly and then said, “For the purposes of expediting this conversation, yes.” Before returning his passport, the officer made Watson repeat for a second time that he, as a journalist, wrote propaganda.
Watson told the Tracker that he gave in when he thought about how long he could be delayed if he called for the officer’s supervisor and filed a complaint in person. He said, however, that he has since filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
In a statement to Defense One, a DHS spokesperson said the CRCL office has received Watson’s complaint and is reviewing it. A spokesperson for CBP also provided an emailed statement to Defense One, stating that the agency is aware of and is investigating the reports of an officer’s alleged inappropriate conduct.
Watson tweeted after the incident, “I’ve honestly never had a human attempt to provoke me like this before in my life.”
What I told my colleagues shortly afterward:
— Ben Watson (@natsecwatson) October 4, 2019
"I've honestly never had a human attempt to provoke me like this before in my life.
This behavior is totally normal now, I guess?" https://t.co/9qV5xRWVMr
Walter Shaub, an attorney who served as director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics until 2017, tweeted that the incident should go to the DHS inspector general for review.
“A customs agent withholding the passport of a journalist until he agrees to say he writes ‘propaganda’ is actionable misconduct, even in Trump’s America,” Shaub wrote.
Watson’s is the latest incident of politicized remarks by CBP agents aimed at journalists that the Tracker has documented in our border stop category. Other recent cases include a journalist being asked if he was part of the “fake news media,” two journalists being told to “fall in line” with the president’s agenda, and aggressive questioning to a reporter about his outlet’s political articles.
International passengers arrive at Washington Dulles International Airport after clearing immigration and customs in Dulles, Virginia in this 2017 file photo.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,Dulles International Airport,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,United States,, 2019-09-16 15:25:52.077513+00:00,2024-02-29 18:47:01.921747+00:00,"BBC journalist questioned by border official, passport reviewed",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/bbc-journalist-questioned-border-official-passport-taken-away/,2024-02-29 18:47:01.839555+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Stephanie Hegarty (BBC News),,2019-08-29,False,Brownsville,Texas (TX),25.90175,-97.49748,"Stephanie Hegarty, a population correspondent for BBC News, was invasively questioned about her reporting and had her passport briefly taken away while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on Aug. 29, 2019.
Hegarty told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was walking across the Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge into Texas with a cameraman and reporter from BBC Mundo around 7:45 p.m. Her colleagues passed through immigration control without incident.
When asked what she was doing in Mexico, Hegarty told the Customs and Border Protection officer that she was a reporter covering the situation at the border. That’s when it got very tense, she said.
“He said, ‘It would help you a lot if you told me exactly where you were, where you were filming and who you spoke to,’” Hegarty told the Tracker. “It was at that point that I thought, ‘Do I really have to tell you that?’”
Hegarty, who is from Ireland, told the CBP officer that she didn’t think that was necessary. The officer scanned her passport, commented, “Oh, interesting,” and asked her to wait in a room while he walked away with her passport. She told the Tracker that she was traveling on a journalist visa and was concerned by the officer’s actions.
“I kinda thought, ‘Is he putting me on some sort of list? What is he doing with my passport in that other room?” Hegarty said.
A CBP officer returned with her passport approximately 10 minutes later—Hegarty said she wasn’t certain whether it was the same officer—and his entire attitude had shifted. He was friendly while returning her passport, Hegarty said, and told her she could go.
Unlike previous searches, however, Hegarty called the incident extremely disappointing and disturbing.
“I used to work in Nigeria so I’m used to being intimidated by officials,” Hegarty said. “But when it happened in the U.S. I was shocked.”
Editor's Note: A previous version of this article misidentified Hegarty's nationality.
People wait on the Mexican side of the Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge in 2018.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge,U.S. non-resident,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,United Kingdom,, 2021-02-09 21:18:09.033278+00:00,2022-08-22 19:51:00.453537+00:00,CBC National correspondent denied entry into United States,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cbc-national-correspondent-denied-entry-into-united-states/,2022-08-22 19:51:00.389806+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Carolyn Dunn (Canadian Broadcasting Company),,2019-08-25,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Carolyn Dunn, a national correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, was denied entry into the United States on Aug. 25, 2019, according to her social media account.
The reporter was traveling to Washington, D.C., to fill in for a colleague when she was refused entry by a border agent, who cited her as “imported labor.”
“Guys, I’ve been refused entry into US. Sections 212 (a) (7) (A) (i) (I). Me going to DC is ‘entry into the labor’ market and I’d be ‘imported labor.’ I’ve never been pulled aside at a US border let alone refused entry,” Dunn tweeted.
Guys, I’ve been refused entry into US. Sections 212 (a) (7) (A) (i) (I). Me going to DC is “entry into the labor” market and I’d be “imported labor”. I’ve never been pulled aside at a US border let alone refused entry.
— carolyn dunn (@carolyndunncbc) August 25, 2019
Dunn also shared a screenshot on her feed of the Department of State’s website that read “Citizens for Canada and Bermuda do not generally require visas to enter the United States as members of the press or media working in the United States.”
Dunn was later allowed entry into the United States: She tweeted the following day, “Second time’s the charm. Will board for a US bound flight soon.”
Dunn did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s request for comment as of press time.
Customs and Border Protection also did not respond to the Tracker’s request for comment as of press time, but a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement to the Washington Examiner in Aug. 2019, “All travelers to the U.S. must possess valid travel documents. For foreign nationals this includes a current passport and the appropriate visa for their intended purpose of travel. For example, if a Canadian reporter is seeking to enter the U.S. to engage in that profession, that reporter must apply for and be granted an I visa.”
The News Photographers Association of Canada expressed concern over the incident in a statement. “It’s a disturbing trend,” NPAC vice president Ryan McLeod said. “The members of the Canadian press have always had a mostly cordial relationship across borders. It doesn’t matter if it’s television/print/web, freelance or staff; citizens of Canada should not and do not require visas to enter the United States. While Ms. Carolyn Dunn was eventually allowed to board a flight into the United States, it speaks volumes about the current climate.”
British journalist James Dyer said a Customs and Border Protection agent asked him if he was “part of the ‘fake news media’” as he passed through U.S. immigration in Los Angeles on Aug. 22, 2019.
Dyer, the digital editor-in-chief at Empire Magazine and host of Pilot TV Podcast, told The Washington Post that he arrived at LAX from London in the afternoon en route to Anaheim, California, to cover Disney’s D23 Expo.
In a long thread posted on Twitter shortly after the incident, Dyer said that the CBP agent at passport control saw that he was traveling on a journalist visa and began a tirade, questioning Dyer’s work history and legitimacy.
“Just went through LAX immigration,” Dyer wrote. “Presented my journalist visa and was stopped by the CBP agent and accused of being part of the ‘fake news media.’”
Wow. Just... wow. Just went through LAX immigration. Presented my journalist visa and was stopped by the CBP agent and accused of being part of the ‘fake news media’.
— James Dyer (@jamescdyer) August 22, 2019
Dyer continued, “He wanted to know if I’d ever worked for CNN or MSNBC or other outlets that are ‘spreading lies to the American people.’ He aggressively told me that journalists are liars and are attacking their democracy.” Dyer noted that the entire exchange passed within a couple minutes.
In subsequent replies, Dyer clarified that the agent did not attempt to detain him or send him to secondary screening, and that he did not feel that he had been “mistreated or detained in any way.” Dyer wrote that he did not get the agent’s name and had not filed a complaint.
CBP Los Angeles tweeted at Dyer acknowledging that they were aware of the incident. “We strongly advise you to file a formal complaint,” the official account wrote.
In a statement to The Post, a CBP spokesperson said, “All CBP officers take an Oath of Office, a solemn pledge that conveys great responsibility and one that should be carried out at all times with the utmost professionalism.”
“Inappropriate comments or behavior are not tolerated, and do not reflect our values of vigilance, integrity and professionalism,” the statement said.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented a similar case in February 2019, involving Australian BuzzFeed reporter David Mack. Mack tweeted that at passport control at JFK airport, a CBP agent “grilled” him for 10 minutes about the outlet’s reporting on Rober Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s connections with Russia.
BuzzFeed reported that a few days after the incident, CBP Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs, Andrew Meehan, apologize to Mack directly in a telephone call.
As of publication, Dyer had not responded to requests for comment from the Tracker.
While entering the U.S. through Los Angeles, California, from London, British journalist James Dyer said he was questioned whether he was part of ‘fake news.’
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,Los Angeles International Airport,U.S. non-resident,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,United Kingdom,, 2019-12-19 21:22:08.320394+00:00,2023-11-06 19:41:13.650974+00:00,"Independent photographer stopped for secondary screening, devices seized",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-photographer-stopped-secondary-screening-devices-seized/,2023-11-06 19:41:13.535462+00:00,,,,"Border Stop, Equipment Search or Seizure",,"cellphone: count of 1, computer: count of 1, camera: count of 1",,Tim Stegmaier (Independent),,2019-06-28,False,Detroit,Michigan (MI),42.33143,-83.04575,"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 for why he was flagged.
While detained, the officers asked Stegmaier for permission to search his computer.
“It is possible that I could have avoided five months of psychological stress with three words: GET A WARRANT,” Stegmaier wrote. “But I was sleep-deprived, and innocent of any crime. So I let them.”
The officers took his phone and camera as well. Stegmaier wrote that he waited 4 ½ hours — causing him to miss his connecting flight to Cincinnati, Ohio — before an officer read him his Miranda rights. The officer proceeded to ask questions about why he was in the U.S., where he was planning on traveling next and whether he had had sex with children while abroad.
The questions presumably stemmed from photos Stegmaier had taken on his reporting trip. In a petition in support of Stegmaier dated Sept. 3, the ACLU of Ohio wrote, “In Manila, he captured numerous images of abject poverty and desperate conditions. He observed and photographed children swimming in filthy water and industrial waste, surrounded by heaps of plastic garbage and fecal matter.”
The ACLU went on to contextualize the photos: that the presence of unclothed children in public in the Philippines is “unremarkable” and images of such scenes routinely appear in journalistic and other publications.
When Stegmaier attempted to explain all of this to the CBP officers, he wrote, they were skeptical of his point-and-shoot camera and asserted that he should have “papers” showing that he is a “real” photographer. Stegmaier also wrote that the officers told him that he should consider himself lucky because the supervisory officer believed him enough not to arrest him.
At the end of his detention, Stegmaier wrote that the officers retained possession of his computer, camera and smartphone, along with the tens of thousands of photographs contained therein.
“It ruined my trip, as I was forced to halt the planned work that I was going to do in the U.S.,” Stegmaier told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “I also felt that the seizure damaged my credibility with a couple people that I was in the process of delivering work to. It was debilitating to not have access to my equipment.”
A month later, Stegmaier received an official Notice of Seizure notifying him that his equipment had been seized because it contained “visual depictions of sexual exploitation of children.”
In addition to the formal petition on Stegmaier’s behalf, a coalition of First Amendment organizations — including the National Press Photographers Association and National Coalition Against Censorship — wrote a letter to CBP urging the return of his equipment.
“The possible disregard by DHS of federal and state level constitutional protections granted to Mr. Stegmaier strike at the heart of the most vital rights we strive to defend,” the letter reads. “The seizure of Stegmaier’s laptop, camera, and iPhone has caused untold damage to his professional life, forcing him to halt all of his work activities.”
Three months after his equipment was seized, Stegmaier wrote that CBP sent him a letter admitting that there was nothing illegal about his photos. The agency promised to return the equipment on the condition that Stegmaier sign a release waiving his right to sue for the wrongful detention and seizure, or else go through a formal hearing process that could take multiple months.
Stegmaier arranged to pick up his equipment in Detroit, during which CBP stopped him again and asked to search his belongings.
“Luckily, I carry the ACLU’s petition letter with me, right next to CBP’s letter admitting I did nothing wrong,” Stegmaier wrote. “I showed these letters to them, and eventually they let me go.”
He wrote that when he left Detroit, he took his equipment and his pictures with him.
“I don’t have a problem going to other countries to work,” Stegmaier told the Tracker. “I only have a problem returning home to a place where I am supposed to have civilian rights.”
Nate Abaurrea, a freelance reporter and radio journalist, was stopped and pulled aside for additional screening by U.S. Customs and Border Protection while crossing into Mexico at the San Ysidro border crossing on May 24, 2019. During the screening, Abaurrea was questioned about his work and an officer photographed his passport card.
Abaurrea, an American citizen, primarily covers sports, immigration and life on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. He told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that crossing the border has been a regular part of his life for years, and has been crossing at the same time and day—Friday morning at 9:15—for the past 10 weeks.
While he’s seen one or two officers, maybe with a dog, standing on the pedestrian crossing on the east side of the port of entry, he was surprised to see five CBP officials standing behind a blind corner.
“I’ve seen officers there before but never in that formation, never like that,” Abaurrea said.
As he rounded the corner and walked past the officers, they stopped and ordered him into “a little side cage area,” Abaurrea tweeted that day. He said that they directed him to be quiet, turn around and place his hands down on a metal table. Two of the officers emptied his pockets of all of his belongings, including his phone, but did not attempt to search his electronic devices.
Abaurrea asked the officers why he was being stopped. “What’s the probable cause here?” he quoted himself as saying in an account of the incident.
“We don’t need probable cause, sir,” an officer responded. “We can stop and search whoever we want.”
Officers asked how much money Abaurrea was carrying, where he was going and why. When he told them he was on his way to a work meeting, they asked him what he did and, when he said he was a writer, who he worked for. An officer Abaurrea identified as “CBP Officer West” then aggressively patted him down, snapping the waistline of his underwear. He was then ordered to show them his passport card.
As West checked the legitimacy of his card and entered numbers into a machine, Abaurrea wrote, a young female officer told him, “If you just cooperate, this will be over. You need to familiarize yourself with the rules, sir.”
When Abaurrea again asked to be told why he was stopped, he wrote that West smiled and asked him to take off his shoes, which were also thoroughly searched. He was then told he was free to go, and began gathering up his belongings. Abaurrea reported that at the moment he noticed West still had his passport card, the officer pulled out a cellphone and took a picture of the card. Abaurrea asked why he did that, to which West responded it was “for [his] records.”
CBP was not immediately available for comment on whether the officer used a government or personal phone, why the photo was taken or where the image is now.
Abaurrea told the Tracker that he has been in contact with multiple nonprofits and organizations that are providing him advice and legal aid as he pursues next steps, including filing for a redress number, a FOIA on his name in CBP and Department of Homeland Security records and a possible lawsuit.
Freelance journalist Nate Abaurrea, who often crosses the U.S.-Mexico border for work, was pulled out for secondary screening, during which a border official photographed his passport card with a cellphone.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-06-26 17:35:24.232965+00:00,2023-11-03 18:20:40.756002+00:00,"Rolling Stone journalist stopped for secondary screening, has electronics searched while asked invasive questions about reporting",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rolling-stone-journalist-stopped-secondary-screening-has-electronics-searched-while-asked-invasive-questions-about-reporting/,2023-11-03 18:20:40.655408+00:00,,,,"Border Stop, Equipment Search or Seizure",,"cellphone: count of 1, computer: count of 1",,Seth Harp (Rolling Stone),,2019-05-13,False,Austin,Texas (TX),30.26715,-97.74306,"After arriving on a flight from Mexico City on May 13, 2019, Rolling Stone journalist Seth Harp was stopped for secondary screening by border authorities in Austin, Texas. Over the course of four hours, the officers aggressively questioned him about his reporting and searched his electronic devices.
Harp, an Austin-based reporter, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he has traveled extensively for work, reporting from Mexico and as a war correspondent in the Middle East.
In an account of the incident he published in The Intercept, Harp wrote that he is usually waved through immigration after a few questions. This time, the questions were more aggressive than usual, and after Harp told the officer that he had spent a week in Mexico on a reporting trip, the officer asked what the piece was about.
“[That] didn’t sit right with me,” Harp wrote. “I tried to skirt the question, but he came back to it, pointedly.”
Harp recalled saying something to the effect of not having a legal obligation to disclose the content of his reporting. Shortly after, a supervisor told him that if he refused to answer the question he would not be allowed into the United States. Customs and Border Protection officials also repeatedly denied Harp’s requests to contact a lawyer, stating that he wasn’t under arrest.
When CBP officers returned to ask again about the content of his reporting, Harp wrote that he gave a glib, joking response.
“From then on out, the officers made it clear that I was in for a long delay,” he wrote.
Though Harp ultimately told the officers that he was finishing a piece for Rolling Stone about men gunrunning from Texas and Arizona to the Mexican cartel, the officers searched his suitcase and carefully read his journal containing personal and professional notes.
The officers then asked Harp to unlock his electronic devices so they could be searched as well.
“When the officers told me they only wanted to check my devices for child pornography, links to terrorism, and so forth, I believed them,” Harp wrote in his account. “I was completely unprepared for the digital ransacking that came next.”
Harp told the Tracker that while wary of compromising his cellphone and laptop, he decided to unlock them after being denied access to a lawyer in order to prevent officers from confiscating his devices. Over the next three hours, the officers combed through his photos, videos, emails, business correspondence and internet history. They also examined his text messages, including encrypted messages on WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram.
The officers frequently took his devices out of the room for long periods of time, and Harp told the Tracker that he suspects they may have made copies. They also wrote down his laptop’s serial number and three or four numbers and alphanumeric sequences found deep in his phone’s settings, including the phone’s IMEI number, a 15 digit identity code that can be used to track a phone’s physical location.
Over the subsequent hours, Harp wrote, the officers questioned him about all aspects of his work, his conversations with editors and colleagues and his political views.
“Interestingly,” Harp wrote, “they didn’t ask me anything about CBP itself. I had told them my current story was about gunrunning, but they didn’t think to ask if I’d done any reporting on their employer, which I had. In fact, my laptop contained hardwon documents on CBP.”
Harp told the Tracker that while he can’t be certain the officers didn’t review those documents, he didn’t see them reading the files and they didn’t ask him questions about them.
On three occasions during the course of his secondary screening, Harp wrote, an officer he identifies as Pomeroy “pronounced words to the effect that he was subjectively forming a reasonable belief that I might grab his service weapon.” Harp wrote that the “rhetorical move” and Pomeroy’s clapping his hand to his sidearm was an “implicit death threat.”
Four hours after he was pulled into secondary, an officer told him he was free to pack up his luggage and go.
Harp told the Tracker that the point of writing The Intercept article about his ordeal was to demonstrate the unchecked power that CBP has been accumulating. “CBP has gotten less reigned in and more aggressive, and with few checks on them they can do this to anybody for any reason.”
Harp wrote that when asked for comment on his article, CBP sent him a statement which read, in part, “CBP has adapted and adjusted our actions to align with current threat information, which is based on intelligence… As the threat landscape changes, so does CBP.”
While returning from a reporting trip in Mexico to Austin, Texas, Rolling Stone journalist Seth Harp was aggressively questioned by Customs and Border Protection agents for multiple hours.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,returned in part,False,None,Austin-Bergstrom International Airport,U.S. citizen,False,True,yes,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,United States,, 2019-02-20 21:30:08.930706+00:00,2024-01-11 17:54:55.372751+00:00,"Journalist stopped at the border for the third time, questioned about his work and FOIA request",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-stopped-border-third-time-questioned-about-his-work-and-foia-request/,2024-01-11 17:54:55.263326+00:00,,,,"Border Stop, Equipment Search or Seizure",,work product: count of 2,,Manuel Rapalo (Freelance),,2019-02-16,False,Miami,Florida (FL),25.77427,-80.19366,"Manuel Rapalo, a freelance journalist, was stopped and pulled aside for additional screening measures while entering the United States on Feb. 16, 2019. During the screening, Rapalo was questioned about his work, and specifically his reporting along the U.S.-Mexico border. It was the third time in 2019 he was stopped by border patrol while on a reporting trip.
Rapalo, an American citizen, covered the migrant caravan from Tijuana, Mexico for Al-Jazeera. Every time he has re-entered the U.S. since the beginning of 2019, he says, he has been pulled aside for a secondary screening. Rapalo believes that a flag or marker has been placed on his travel documents because border officials have consistently stopped him only after scanning his passport.
He said he was pulled aside in February when re-entering the U.S. in Miami from Haiti. He was previously stopped for secondary screening measures when returning from Mexico on Jan. 5, when his notebooks were searched, and Jan. 26, when his notebooks and photos on his camera were searched.
“When coming into Miami, an officer scanned my passport and immediately said, ‘Hmm, I guess we have to pull you aside, Mr. Rapalo,’” he said of the Feb. 16 stop.
Although Rapalo was returning from Haiti, he was questioned about his work and reporting on the migrant caravan along the Mexican border. Then his notebooks were searched.
One of his reporter notebooks included notes and information about the process of filing a Freedom of Information Act request, which he intended to do for his work.
“The officer took exception to this, and asked me why I was interested in filing FOIAs,” Rapalo said. “I told him, because I’m a journalist, and it’s one of the tools we have.”
Rapalo said during this border stop in Miami, an official who seemed to “like him” indicated that these stops would be an ongoing problem. “He said I could try Global Entry to make this go faster next time.”
Global Entry is a government program for expediting international travel.
Like the previous incidents, Rapalo said the secondary screenings began with about 30 minutes of questioning, then he was held for 1-2 hours while his luggage was searched. During this search, however, Rapalo said a large amount of attention focused on the paper receipts in his bag and wallet.
Rapalo said that he has changed his behavior due to concerns about protecting his sources and reporting materials. He now brings new memory cards with him each time he travels for work.
CBP did not immediately respond to request for comment.
A journalist captures the movement of migrant children around the U.S.-Mexico border on Dec. 31, 2018.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,returned in full,False,None,Miami International Airport,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-02-06 16:13:52.349565+00:00,2022-08-22 19:56:17.118528+00:00,BuzzFeed News reporter aggressively questioned about reporting at passport checkpoint,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/buzzfeed-news-reporter-aggressively-questioned-about-reporting-passport-checkpoint/,2022-08-22 19:56:17.062971+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,David Mack (BuzzFeed News),,2019-02-03,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"A Customs and Border Protection agent aggressively questioned Australian BuzzFeed News reporter David Mack about his work at a passport checkpoint in New York City on Feb. 3, 2019. Days later, a CBP official apologized for the “inappropriate remarks made to him.”
Mack arrived at JFK airport from the United Kingdom, where he was renewing his U.S. work visa. According to BuzzFeed, Mack said the CBP agent at passport control saw BuzzFeed listed as his employer on his visa, and began to ask him questions.
That evening, Mack tweeted a thread about the incident:
the immigration agent at JFK just saw that i work for buzzfeed and just grilled me for 10 minutes about the cohen story which was fun given he gets to decide whether to let me back into the country
— David Mack (@davidmackau) February 4, 2019
The line of aggressive questioning focused mostly on BuzzFeed’s reporting on Robert Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections with Russia, and in particular, a Jan. 17 article about Attorney Michael Cohen.
BuzzFeed reported that CBP Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs, Andrew Meehan, apologized to Mack directly in a telephone call on Feb. 5, and stated that “The officer’s comments do not reflect CBP’s commitment to integrity and professionalism of its workforce. In response to this incident, CBP immediately reviewed the event and has initiated the appropriate personnel inquiry and action."
Mack did not respond to request for comment, but according to BuzzFeed, Mack was grateful for the apology.
BuzzFeed News spokesperson Matt Mittenthal said: "We appreciate the government's prompt response and apology for this unfortunate incident... Customs agents do not get to weaponize their political opinions against residents legally entering the United States."
BuzzFeed's company headquarters in New York (file).
Manuel Rapalo, a freelance journalist, was stopped and pulled aside for additional screening measures while entering the United States via Washington, D.C. on Jan. 26, 2019. During the screening, Rapalo was questioned about his reporting along the U.S.-Mexico border and had his notebooks and camera searched.
Rapalo, an American citizen, covered the migrant caravan from Mexico for Al-Jazeera. Every time he has re-entered the U.S. since then, he says, he has been pulled aside for a secondary screening. Rapalo believes that a flag or marker has been placed on his travel documents because border officials have consistently stopped him only after scanning his passport.
The first time this happened, Rapalo said, was Jan. 5, when Customs and Border Protection officials questioned him about his work and searched through his notebook. When he returned from another reporting trip on the migrant caravan on Jan. 26, he was stopped again.
“It was more intensive [than the previous incident],” Rapalo said. “This time they went through everything in my bag, including through my camera.”
Similar to the first incident, Rapalo said the secondary screening began with about 30 minutes of questioning, then he was held for 1-2 hours while his luggage was searched.
Rapalo said that border authorities did not request that he delete photographs, but that he has changed his behavior due to concerns about protecting his sources and reporting materials. He now brings new memory cards for his equipment with him when he travels for work.
“I said that I felt really uncomfortable with [the border officials] going through my pictures,” Rapalo said of this incident. “I’m concerned with all of the names that I have in my notebooks of sources, and photographs of migrants, that [border officials] should not have.”
Rapalo said that U.S. authorities have screened him during other trips, including searching the photos on his camera and questioning him about public records requests he intends to file.
CBP did not immediately respond to request for comment.
A journalist captures the movement of migrants around the U.S.-Mexico border on Dec. 31, 2018.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,returned in full,False,None,"Washington, D.C.",U.S. citizen,False,True,yes,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,migrant caravan,United States,, 2022-01-14 14:40:32.348102+00:00,2022-08-22 19:57:21.799115+00:00,Photojournalist questioned by CBP in Detroit after being denied entry to Mexico,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-questioned-by-cbp-in-detroit-after-being-denied-entry-to-mexico/,2022-08-22 19:57:21.743345+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Kitra Cahana (Freelance),,2019-01-18,False,Detroit,Michigan (MI),42.33143,-83.04575,"Freelance photojournalist Kitra Cahana was questioned about her journalistic work by U.S. Customs and Border Protection authorities in Detroit, Michigan, on Jan. 18, 2019.
Cahana was one of many journalists covering the Central American migrant caravan’s arrival to Mexico. According to a lawsuit in which Cahana is a plaintiff, the photojournalist was flagged for secondary screening by CBP at a preclearance location in Montreal while traveling from Canada to Mexico City via Detroit on Jan. 17. Cahana was ultimately denied entry to Mexico and put on a return flight to Detroit the following day.
According to the lawsuit, when Cahana landed and passed through customs the machine printed out a ticket with a picture of her face with a large “X” on it, indicating that she had been flagged for secondary screening.
Two plainclothes officers questioned Cahana in a private room, asking about her denial of entry to Mexico and her interactions with the Mexican authorities. The officers also asked her to confirm details of an incident that took place the day after Christmas.
“This suggested to Ms. Cahana that the officers knew more about her and her journalism work in Mexico in December 2018 than Ms. Cahana had revealed during questioning by them,” the lawsuit states.
On March 6, NBC 7 in San Diego broke the story that Department of Homeland Security officials in San Diego had created a database of journalists, activists and attorneys who were involved in some way with the migrant caravan, including Cahana. The anonymous whistleblower who brought the documents to NBC 7 told the news outlet that the DHS had created dossiers on each individual in the database.
“We are a criminal investigation agency, we’re not an intelligence agency,” the anonymous source said. “We can’t create dossiers on people and they’re creating dossiers. This is an abuse of the Border Search Authority.”
DHS confirmed to NBC 7 that the seal on the documents indicates that “the documents are a product of the International Liaison Unit (ILU), which coordinates intelligence between Mexico and the United States.”
“In the current state of journalism, it's really freelancers who are bringing so much news to the public,” Cahana told NBC 7. “And the uncertainty of having an alert placed on your passport and not knowing where and when that's going to prevent you from doing your work is really problematic.”
On Nov. 20, Cahana and four other photojournalists — all of whom were questioned about their work covering the migrant caravan and documented in the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker — filed a lawsuit against the heads of DHS, CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“This lawsuit challenges U.S. border officers’ questioning of journalists about their work documenting conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border,” the suit begins “The border officers’ questioning aimed at uncovering Plaintiffs’ sources of information and their observations as journalists was unconstitutional.”
The suit seeks a ruling that such questioning violates the First Amendment and an injunction requiring the agencies to expunge any records or files about the photojournalists. The suit remains ongoing and discovery is underway.
Freelance photojournalist Kitra Cahana had an alert placed on her passport and was entered into a database authorized by the U.S. government, which collected information about her and other journalists. Cahana was ultimately denied entry into Mexico multiple times.
Cahana was one of many journalists covering the Central American migrant caravan’s arrival to Mexico. While traveling from Canada to Mexico City on Jan. 17, 2019, Cahana was pulled aside at U.S. Customs and Border Protection preclearance in Montreal due to a “flag” on her passport, she said.
According to a lawsuit in which Cahana is a plaintiff, officers questioned Cahana about her work, how it was funded, whether she was covering the caravan on assignment and how she obtained assignments. After approximately 10 minutes, she was allowed to board her flight, but upon arrival was pulled aside again due to the alert on her passport — this time, by Mexican authorities, who Cahana said separated her from her phone.
According to the lawsuit, Cahana repeatedly asked the officers why she was being held and if it was because she is a journalist. An officer responded that she was being held because of a flag with Interpol by U.S. authorities.
She was ultimately denied entry to Mexico and was forced to return to Detroit; upon landing, she was once again flagged for secondary screening.
On March 6, NBC 7 in San Diego broke the story that Department of Homeland Security officials in San Diego had created a database of journalists, activists and attorneys who were involved in some way with the migrant caravan. The anonymous whistleblower who brought the documents to NBC 7 told the news outlet that the DHS had created dossiers on each individual in the database.
“We are a criminal investigation agency, we’re not an intelligence agency,” the anonymous source said. “We can’t create dossiers on people and they’re creating dossiers. This is an abuse of the Border Search Authority.”
DHS confirmed to NBC 7 that the seal on the documents indicates that “the documents are a product of the International Liaison Unit (ILU), which coordinates intelligence between Mexico and the United States.”
“In the current state of journalism, it's really freelancers who are bringing so much news to the public,” Cahana told NBC 7. “And the uncertainty of having an alert placed on your passport and not knowing where and when that's going to prevent you from doing your work is really problematic.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented other journalists covering the migrant caravan who were targeted by U.S. authorities for additional border screening measures. Some, including Go Nakamura and Ariana Drehsler, are listed in the database.
Editor's Note: This article has been updated with information detailed in a lawsuit Kitra Cahana filed in November 2019.
An independent documentary filmmaker was stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border twice by U.S. officials while following the migrant caravan for a film project. The second stop included a search of his equipment.
The filmmaker, a foreign citizen who is based in the U.S., told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that in December 2018 he was crossing the San Ysidro border near San Diego, California, when he was stopped and held for several hours after being recognized for his work by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent.
Not quite a week later, he said, he was stopped at the same border point while re-entering Mexico to continue his work.
About 1 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, a CBP agent took the passports of the filmmaker and a friend with whom he was traveling.
Usually, the filmmaker said, a secondary screening has a specific protocol: The agent puts the passport in an orange slip and tucks the slip under a wiper on the front windshield. This time, he said, the protocol was very different.
The agent kept the two passports, asked the filmmaker for his wallet and told him and his friend to leave the car. The filmmaker was then taken inside the CBP office, where he waited for 30-40 minutes.
Plainclothes officers began asking questions, he said, most notably about if he’d been in any face-off with officers or if he had any involvement in a specific New Year’s Eve incident. On Dec. 31, 2018, CBP agents fired tear gas across the border near Tijuana, Mexico.
The filmmaker also said the agents asked if he “knew of any group or people who were agitators.”
The filmmaker said he answered the questions and then the agents asked him to unlock his phone. He did so, he said, because he didn’t want to escalate the situation and get into a confrontation with the agents.
“By this time it’s almost 2 a.m.,” the filmmaker said, “And the whole situation is intimidating.”
After about 15 minutes with his phone, the agents returned and asked him to unlock it again. They also asked for his email and phone number.
“I don’t think anything was missing from my phone,” the filmmaker said, “But they had full access to everything — my contacts, my photos, my social media.”
All told, he said, he was held for about 2 hours. His friend’s car was searched and she was brought in and questioned as well.
The filmmaker said he has no plans to go back because he is done filming. He did ask that his name not be used for fear of reprisal.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has detailed nearly a dozen border stops of journalists following the migrant caravan. In March, San Diego’s NBC 7 investigative news team received leaked documents showing the U.S. government had been tracking and keeping dossiers on American journalists, lawyers and activists involved with the caravan. The news station also received an internal email showing the order to increase surveillance came from the head of the city’s Department of Homeland Security.
Manuel Rapalo, a freelance journalist, was stopped and pulled aside for additional screening measures while entering the United States via Washington, D.C. on Jan. 5, 2019. During the screening, Rapalo was questioned about his reporting along the U.S.-Mexico border and had his notebook searched.
Rapalo, an American citizen, covered the migrant caravan from Tijuana, Mexico, for Al-Jazeera. Every time he has re-entered the U.S. since then, he says, he has been pulled aside for a secondary screening, in what Rapalo calls his “new routine.”
Rapalo believes that a flag or marker has been placed on his travel documents because border officials have consistently stopped him only after scanning his passport. The Jan. 5 secondary screening was his first time to be pulled aside—he was also stopped for additional screening on Jan. 26 and Feb. 16, where the photos on his camera were searched and he was questioned about public records requests he intends to file.
“The first question was, ‘Why did you have trouble at the border?’” Rapalo said, referring to his reporting on the US-Mexico border. “I don’t know how he could have even known that. And then they asked me about my work along the border.”
According to Rapalo, the secondary screening began with about 30 minutes of questioning, then he was held for 1-2 hours while his luggage was searched.
“They go through my reporter notebooks, receipts, and ask me about the nature of my work, and how long I’ve been doing the job and whether I do fake news,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “I tell them to Google me. It seems like they are trying to get information out of me related to the border, like gathering intelligence on why the media is interested in the border.”
Rapalo said that while reporting from Tijuana on New Year’s Eve 2018, officials with Customs and Border Protection accused him and other journalists of exploiting migrants for stories and even “bringing them here from the shelters.”
“CBP tells people at the border hoping to cross that the journalists are taking advantage of them, and that they are there to make money off of them,” Rapalo said.
He said he responded to these accusations by stating that, “I can’t speak for everyone else, but I’m just here to watch and witness.”
CBP did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Journalists for Al-Jazeera report on Jan. 1 in Mexico while covering activities along the U.S.-Mexico border.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,returned in full,False,None,"Washington, D.C.",U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-02-22 15:53:32.071992+00:00,2023-11-06 19:46:43.898679+00:00,Photojournalist pulled into secondary screening at border,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-pulled-secondary-screening-border/,2023-11-06 19:46:43.792481+00:00,,,"(2019-11-20 00:00:00+00:00) Photojournalists sue DHS, agencies after questioned about caravan coverage",Border Stop,,,,Mark Abramson (Freelance),,2019-01-05,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Mark Abramson, a freelance photojournalist, was pulled into secondary screening by U.S. border officials while returning from Mexico on Jan. 5, 2019.
Abramson, a U.S. citizen, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that border agents looked through his belongings, including his notebook, at the El Chaparral port of entry at San Diego, California.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection official then brought Abramson into a separate room, where he was asked to leave his bag and phone behind. The Intercept reported that in there, he was questioned for about 30 minutes about assignments and payments he received as a freelancer. The official also asked a series of questions related to the migrant caravan, including whether Abramson knew “who is stirring up stuff in the camp” or of groups helping the migrants.
Abramson told CPJ he was disturbed by the line of questions. “I’m not an informant, my job is to inform the public,” he said.
CBP did not respond to a request for comment.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer watches a group of migrants from Central America seeking asylum as they search for a place to cross over the U.S. border wall in Tijuana, Mexico, in December 2018.
",None,None,None,None,False,1:19-cv-06570,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-02-21 19:36:46.461277+00:00,2023-11-06 19:47:03.580768+00:00,"Photojournalist questioned at San Ysidro border, separated from camera",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-questioned-san-ysidro-border-separated-camera/,2023-11-06 19:47:03.442523+00:00,,,"(2019-11-20 00:00:00+00:00) Photojournalist sues DHS, agencies after questioned about caravan coverage","Border Stop, Equipment Search or Seizure",,camera: count of 1,,Ariana Drehsler (Freelance),,2019-01-04,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"On Jan. 4, 2019, freelance photojournalist Ariana Drehsler was stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border and subjected to secondary screening measures for the third time over the course of several weeks.
Drehsler had been covering the migrant caravan and seekers of asylum status in the United States. When she crossed over from Mexico on Dec. 30, 2018, she was stopped and told that her passport had been “flagged,” and she was again stopped for additional screening on Jan. 2.
“I was sent to secondary screening again,” she said of the Jan. 4 incident. While she was waiting to be questioned at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego, she said border agents chatted with her about her photography gear.
“One asked if I would show him my photos, but I declined, and he said something like, ‘Yeah, I kind of figured.’”
Unlike her two previous border stops, during which she was questioned by officials wearing civilian clothing, this time she was questioned by uniformed U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
She was patted down, and then her belongings were searched in front of her, she said. “I didn’t have my laptop because I felt paranoid doing so at that point,” referring to the two previous border stops.
“They took me into a hall and they told me to leave my bag and phone there, and they took me to another room.”
Drehsler said she felt uncomfortable being separated from her belongings.
During questioning, she said she was asked about background as a journalist and her previous work-related travels to the Middle East as well as details about the migrant caravan.
“The agents that questioned me said, ‘You’re on the ground and we’re not,’ which is why they were asking me those questions. They wanted to know what I was seeing and hearing about the new caravan and organizers.”
Drehsler said that before December 2018 she did not have any problem entering the United States when reporting from Mexico.
CBP did not immediately respond to request for comment.
A man holds an American flag at the Contra Viento y Marea shelter, a private warehouse converted into a shelter for migrants who traveled from Central America to near the US-Mexico border, in Tijuana, Mexico, on Jan. 4, 2019.
",None,None,None,None,False,1:19-cv-06570,['ONGOING'],Civil,returned in full,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,yes,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-02-21 18:50:06.678337+00:00,2023-11-06 19:47:20.207092+00:00,Photojournalist questioned at U.S.-Mexico border for second time,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-questioned-us-mexico-border-second-time/,2023-11-06 19:47:20.113165+00:00,,,"(2019-11-20 00:00:00+00:00) Photojournalist sues DHS, agencies after questioned about caravan coverage",Border Stop,,,,Ariana Drehsler (Freelance),,2019-01-02,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Freelance photojournalist Ariana Drehsler was stopped for a secondary screening and questioned while entering the United States from Mexico on Jan. 2, 2019.
Drehsler arrived around 11 p.m. on Jan. 2 at San Diego’s San Ysidro port of entry from Mexico, where she had been documenting the caravan of Central American immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S. for wire service United Press International.
Similar to a border stop at the same port of entry just days before, she was stopped and questioned by three officials wearing civilian clothes.
“They were the same two people from the first time, as well as another,” Drehsler said. “They said, ‘Oh, we brought a new person,’ and they were like, ‘We mentioned you to this other guy.’” She said the officials made a point to say she would not have to wait as long as last time.
“Before they started asking me questions, I said I was not in Tijuana on New Year’s Day, because I had a feeling this would happen,” she said, referring to an incident the day before, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents had fired at migrants attempting to climb a wall to enter into the U.S.
Drehsler said that one of the officials replied, “You took the words right out of my mouth.”
In an attempt to shift the conversation away from the journalists covering the migrant caravan, Drehsler said she brought up the presence of activists, such as those present in Tijuana from Seattle.
“[Border officials] mentioned the new caravan, and asked if the people in the new one understand how hard it is for people to seek asylum at the border. I said I had no idea. They asked about the organizers and activists and said their presence has dropped off. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t know.”
Just before leaving the secondary screening and entering the U.S., Drehsler said the border agents asked her whether she rented or owned her home.
Drehsler told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was confused about the relevance of the question. “[The agent] said she just wanted to know for yourself,” she said. “I said I rented.”
Like her previous border stop on Dec. 30, 2018, none of her belongings, notes, or devices were searched. A few days after this incident, Drehsler would be stopped a third time.
“I didn’t have anything to hide, but I still felt weird answering their questions,” she said. “I felt like an informant.”
CBP did not immediately respond to request for comment.
In early December 2018, El Barretal shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, housed more than 3,000 migrants from Central America.
",None,None,None,None,False,1:19-cv-06570,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-02-15 18:01:00.013345+00:00,2024-01-08 16:51:19.595327+00:00,Photojournalist stopped and questioned at US-Mexico border,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-stopped-and-questioned-us-mexican-border/,2024-01-08 16:51:19.465847+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Emilio Fraile (Freelance),,2019-01-01,True,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Spanish freelance photojournalist Emilio Fraile was questioned in secondary screening by U.S. authorities while traveling from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego, California in January 2019.
Fraile told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that he had been working in Mexico for several months, three weeks of which was spent reporting from Tijuana on the migrant caravan. While attempting to enter the United States, Fraile was stopped and questioned about his work for approximately a half hour.
The questions, Fraile told CPJ, included whether or not Americans were “collaborating” with the migrant caravan. “They were always trying to get information from us,” he said.
When border officials asked to see his photographs, Fraile said that he had already deleted them.
Fraile told CPJ about an additional interaction with U.S. border authorities during his time working in Mexico, in which an agent asked him how many migrants were hidden in a certain area.
In another case, a group of border agents and several others, wearing what Fraile said appeared to be military outfits, approached a group of photojournalists around New Years. Shining a light at them, the agents repeatedly asked, “Where is Emilio?”
Fraile told CPJ he was not sure how they knew his name, and that he felt it was an attempt to intimidate him.
The Intercept reported that Fraile and other Spanish photojournalists had their passports photographed on Jan. 3 by Mexican authorities, who informed the journalists that they share information with the U.S. police.
While covering the migrant caravan in Mexico, freelance photojournalist Ariana Drehsler has been stopped for secondary screenings each time she has re-entered the United States since December 2018.
At around 12:15 a.m. on Dec. 30, 2018, Drehsler arrived at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego to cross back into the United States. She had been covering the migrant caravan for wire service United Press International. She would be stopped again on Jan. 2 and Jan. 4.
Drehsler said that the U.S. border agent who had her passport asked her a couple of questions before informing her that she would need to go to secondary screening.
“A man and a woman in civilian clothes came up to me and took me into another room. They asked me what I was doing in Tijuana, who I work for, what other outlets I’ve worked for, my editor’s phone number,” Drehsler said. “They also asked about my background as a photographer.”
She said that she was asked about what she knew about the caravan, people crossing the border illegally, and details about the shelters for migrants in Mexico.
“I didn’t hide anything, but I also didn’t give them information like the names of fellow journalists. And they also didn’t ask me for specific names.”
Drehsler told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the border officials informed her that her passport had been “flagged,” but they did not know why, and they indicated that she might want to budget more time for border crossings since she could be stopped again.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents did not search Drehsler’s notes, electronic devices, or baggage, and she was permitted to bring her phone into questioning. She left the port of entry and entered the United States around 1:25 a.m.
CBP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Unlike the U.S. side, where onlookers are supposed to keep a distance, those at Las Playas de Tijuana in Mexico are allowed to get close to the border wall that separates the two countries.
",None,None,None,None,False,1:19-cv-06570,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-02-15 18:10:00.072279+00:00,2022-08-22 20:04:41.151541+00:00,Student photojournalist stopped at US-Mexico border for secondary screening,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-photography-students-stopped-us-mexico-border-secondary-screening/,2022-08-22 20:04:41.075237+00:00,,,"(2019-11-20 00:00:00+00:00) Photojournalists sue DHS, agencies after questioned about caravan coverage","Border Stop, Equipment Search or Seizure",,camera: count of 1,,Bing Guan (Independent),,2018-12-29,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Bing Guan and Go Nakamura, American photojournalists, were pulled into secondary screening on Dec. 29, 2018, while driving through the San Ysidro point of entry, a border crossing between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers separated Guan, who was driving his car, and Nakamura and questioned them individually. Guan told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was questioned by two plainclothes CBP agents, one of whom produced a tear sheet with photographs of people who had been around the caravan. Guan told CPJ that the agents showed him two or three sheets of photo arrays “with between 9 and 12 photos” on each page. These included some photos that appeared like mugshots and others that seemed like surveillance photos.
Guan told The Intercept that he recognized two individuals as anti-migrant activists and thought that a third was associated with Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an immigrant rights group. Guan said that the CPB agents referred to the people in the photos as “instigators.”
Guan was asked to open his camera and show photographs, which he did, reasoning that it would be too dark to identify anyone, according to the account in The Intercept.
Likewise, Nakamura told CPJ that a CBP officer asked him to show his photographs to prove he was a photographer. The officer then showed Nakamura photographs of 20 people and asked whether he had seen them in Mexico. Nakamura said that he was not given an explanation of who the people were.
Two days prior to the secondary screening, Nakamura and Guan were stopped by Mexican municipal police officers who photographed their passports.
A few weeks before he was pulled into secondary screening, Guan had driven through the same San Ysidro port of entry without any issues, he said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents look toward the Mexican border at the San Ysidro border in San Diego, California in November 2018.
",None,None,None,None,False,1:19-cv-06570,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"migrant caravan, student journalism",United States,, 2022-01-14 15:59:14.344475+00:00,2022-08-22 20:05:12.469502+00:00,Photojournalist stopped at US-Mexico border for secondary screening,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-stopped-at-us-mexico-border-for-secondary-screening/,2022-08-22 20:05:12.373002+00:00,,,"(2019-11-20 00:00:00+00:00) Photojournalists sue DHS, agencies after questioned about caravan coverage","Border Stop, Equipment Search or Seizure",,camera: count of 1,,Go Nakamura (Freelance),,2018-12-29,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Go Nakamura and Bing Guan, American photojournalists, were pulled into secondary screening on Dec. 29, 2018, while driving through the San Ysidro point of entry, a border crossing between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers separated Guan, who was driving his car, and Nakamura and questioned them individually. Guan told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was questioned by two plainclothes CBP agents, one of whom produced a tear sheet with photographs of people who had been around the caravan. Guan told CPJ that the agents showed him two or three sheets of photo arrays “with between 9 and 12 photos” on each page. These included some photos that appeared like mugshots and others that seemed like surveillance photos.
Guan told The Intercept that he recognized two individuals as anti-migrant activists and thought that a third was associated with Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an immigrant rights group. Guan said that the CPB agents referred to the people in the photos as “instigators.”
Guan was asked to open his camera and show photographs, which he did, reasoning that it would be too dark to identify anyone, according to the account in The Intercept.
Likewise, Nakamura told CPJ that a CBP officer asked him to show his photographs to prove he was a photographer. The officer then showed Nakamura photographs of 20 people and asked whether he had seen them in Mexico. Nakamura said that he was not given an explanation of who the people were.
Two days prior to the secondary screening, Nakamura and Guan were stopped by Mexican municipal police officers who photographed their passports.
A few weeks before he was pulled into secondary screening, Guan had driven through the same San Ysidro port of entry without any issues, he said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents participate in a readiness exercise in January at the San Ysidro port of entry with Mexico in San Diego, California.
",None,None,None,None,False,1:19-cv-06570,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-09-06 13:37:36.207400+00:00,2024-01-08 19:23:47.034870+00:00,Independent filmmaker stopped while crossing U.S.-Mexico border,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-filmmaker-stopped-while-crossing-us-mexico-border/,2024-01-08 19:23:46.943541+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Anonymous documentary journalist 2 (Independent),,2018-12-28,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"An independent documentary filmmaker was stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border twice by U.S. officials while following the migrant caravan for a film project.
The foreign-born citizen is based in the U.S. and asked to not have his name used for fear of reprisal.
The filmmaker told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that on Dec. 28, 2018, he was crossing the San Ysidro border near San Diego, California, by car when Mexican authorities pointed out that his temporary work visa had been mis-stamped. The authorities let him cross, however, into the United States.
On the U.S. side, the filmmaker went into the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office to show an officer the error, and asked him to correct it. The officer started to until another agent said of him, “I know that guy—he’s in the video at the border.”
The officer was referring to a video taken of the journalist filming at the border. The video seemed to have been taken from a car, and in it, the filmmaker was clearly recognizable.
“I was following a family of migrants,” the filmmaker said, “And border patrol was trying to trip me up, trying to get me away from the family I was following.”
When CBP took away the family and pushed the filmmaker back, he said he gave them no resistance.
While inside the Customs office, a CBP officer told the filmmaker to sit down, that he’d “be there for hours,” and “a special team was going to come in.”
The officers continued re-watching the video, and the filmmaker waited for nearly 2 hours. Finally, he said, there was a shift change in the office and the next officer on duty cleared him to go.
A week later, while returning to Mexico through the same San Ysidro border, the filmmaker was stopped again, and the car he was in and his phone were searched.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has detailed nearly a dozen border stops of journalists following the migrant caravan. In March, San Diego’s NBC 7 investigative news team received leaked documents showing the U.S. government had been tracking and keeping dossiers on American journalists, lawyers and activists involved with the caravan. The news station also received an internal email showing the order to increase surveillance came from the head of the city’s Department of Homeland Security.
While flying from the United Kingdom into the United States on Dec. 23, 2018, filmmaker and director Saeed Taji Farouky was stopped by border authorities, who questioned him about his work and family and asked him to unlock his cellphone.
Farouky, who is based in the UK, had obtained a visa for this trip, and was checking in at the airport. At the check-in counter, Farouky heard the employee who had his paperwork tell another employee, “I’ve got someone here relating to those two words that I can’t say.”
“I was like, what are those two words?” Farouky said. “Why would you say that in front of me?”
Whatever those two words were, Farouky was pulled aside for an interview by the Department of Homeland Security. He said the interview didn’t surprise him. While securing his visa for the trip, an embassy representative told him he might be interviewed again while traveling. Plus, he said, he is used to it.
“This time,” Farouky said, “This DHS guy showed up and questioned me for 10 minutes. There were some questions about my work, and also strange questions about whether I had family in the United States—he wanted to know if they were ‘OK,’ or if they had medical issues. When I mentioned living in Morocco in the past, he kept bringing up this story in which two Scandinavian hikers were killed by an ISIS affiliate. The story is horrifying, but he kept bringing it up over and over. It felt like maybe he was phishing to see my reaction.”
After he was told by DHS that he was good to go, Farouky said his luggage was given an additional swab to test for explosives, and then he boarded his flight to Florida. But upon landing, he said he was quickly pulled aside again.
“I sat there for a long time while someone asked me questions, and it focused on my travel history. He brought up Syria a lot, which I visited in 2009 before the United States’ cutoff date to visit the country.”
Farouky said a border agent then asked for his phone, and requested him to unlock it. The border officials did not ask him for his passcode.
“I didn’t know what my rights were,” Farouky said. “I asked, ‘What if I am not comfortable with that?’ And they said the only other option was sending my phone to a private company, which meant I wouldn’t get it back for weeks.”
Border agents cannot force travelers to unlock their phones or laptops, but they can ask them to do so and escalate the situation. If travelers refuse, officials can seize the devices and copy the data.
Farouky said he was worried about his contacts, both personal and professional. “If they harvested all of the names and numbers, that’s everyone I have ever interviewed, so my sources could be put in some sort of database. But I didn’t feel like I had a choice.”
He said he felt intensely uncomfortable, but unlocked his phone and gave it to the officials. Farouky said they told him they were just looking for evidence of illegal activity. The border agents then took his phone into another room, returning it after about five minutes, Farouky said. When it was returned, it was on airplane mode.
A 2018 Customs and Border Protection directive requires officials to ensure that prior to a search, devices are not connected to the internet, so that searches only involve content that is stored locally on the device.
Farouky also noted that at no point was he offered a piece of paper detailing his rights in the situation. He also said that he was concerned that pushing back would only spike the authorities’ interest in his devices and work.
“I certainly didn’t want them looking at my laptop. I’m not even doing hardcore investigative work,” he said.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment.
Farouky emphasized that this kind of incident is not uncommon for him, and that he has been questioned by authorities while traveling and asked to unlock his devices at other times. He said in a Tel Aviv airport around 2009, Israeli authorities asked him to unlock his phone and he refused. And a few years ago in New York, he was interrogated in what he called a much ruder and longer fashion. There, his phone was taken but not unlocked.
“I don’t have any doubt that this is because I am a Muslim, a Palestinian, and a journalist. It really pissed me off intellectually,” Farouky said.
Freelance multimedia reporter Brooke Binkowski was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers while she was re-entering the United States on Nov. 24, 2018, the fourth time in six months.
Binkowski told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was returning from a reporting trip to visit the migrant caravan moving that month, and was crossing later in the day than she normally would, which worried her.
“I knew heading back there was going to be a problem,” she said.
The Tracker has documented other cases where CBP officers targeted journalists covering migrant caravans for questioning about their reporting and sources. Freelance photojournalist Ariana Drehsler told the Tracker that when officers asked about her reporting on the caravan and about organizers and activists, “I felt like an informant.”
Binkowski told the Tracker that while the officers did not ask to search her phone and were less aggressive than during her previous stops, it felt like an “escalation.”
“They kept me: no threats, no yelling. But that was almost worse because if felt like they were just keeping me because they could,” Binkowski said.
CBP officers held her for about an hour, Binkowski said, questioning her about where she had been in Tijuana and about her work as a journalist before letting her cross into the U.S. It was their “mindless exercise of power,” she told the Tracker, that pushed her to stop crossing the border. She hasn’t been back since this trip.
“In the end I stopped crossing not because of myself, though now I think it was prudent,” Binkowski said, “But because I was worried about potentially getting other people’s names on a list, and that kind of responsibility in this time is just too much.”
While covering the migrant caravan, freelance multimedia reporter Brooke Binkowski was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection multiple times.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,True,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-08-02 18:39:51.167748+00:00,2024-01-09 16:29:39.257224+00:00,Journalist questioned at San Ysidro border crossing for third time,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-questioned-san-ysidro-border-crossing-third-time/,2024-01-09 16:29:39.159205+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Brooke Binkowski (Freelance),,2018-08-22,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Freelance multimedia reporter Brooke Binkowski was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers while she was re-entering the United States on Aug. 22, 2018, the third time in two months that she was directed to secondary screening.
Binkowski, a U.S. citizen, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was crossing the border in the afternoon, around the same time she normally drives back to San Diego. As with previous stops, both she and her car were searched. When she told them she was a journalist, she was questioned about her reporting.
“They made me get out of my car and made me keep my phone in my pocket,” Binkowski told the Tracker. She said that while neither her phone nor any other electronic device has been searched during any of her experiences in secondary screening, it remains “a huge, huge fear.”
“[It’s] something for which I have my stepdad, a lawyer, on speed dial, but which has not yet happened,” Binkowski said. “But, I have not crossed with my laptop since 2017 out of those same concerns.”
Binkowski told the Tracker that her frustration with wait times when crossing the border—which is a mere 15 minute drive from her home in San Diego—pushed her to apply for Global Entry, NEXUS and SENTRI in the early 2000s. Each is a system by which travelers that are deemed low-risk through rigorous background checks or in-person interviews are pre-approved in order to be granted expedited clearance.
Despite having these pre-approvals, Binkowski said she was detained for approximately an hour during this screening before she was permitted to enter the U.S.
Freelance journalist Brooke Binkowski, right, remained in secondary screening at the U.S.-Mexico border for more than an hour while she and her car were searched.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,True,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,United States,, 2019-08-02 18:38:20.530807+00:00,2024-01-09 16:29:58.268624+00:00,"Freelance multimedia reporter stopped at San Ysidro border crossing, questioned about reporting",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-multimedia-reporter-stopped-san-ysidro-border-crossing-questioned-about-reporting/,2024-01-09 16:29:58.189861+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Brooke Binkowski (Freelance),,2018-07-01,True,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Beginning in 2017, freelance multimedia reporter Brooke Binkowski noticed she was sent to secondary screening whenever she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The first few times it was a cursory inspection so I chalked it up to increased security and border agents flexing their muscles more or less because they could,” Binkowski, a U.S. citizen, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
She said she then became concerned about her treatment in July 2018, when she was pulled into secondary screening as she re-entered via the San Ysidro port of entry. Binkowski told the Tracker that she had been in Mexico, in part, “hunting down documents.”
While she can’t remember the exact date of the incident, Binkowski told the Tracker that her mid-afternoon crossing in July 2018 was unusual, and struck her as “security theater.”
“I was yelled at, intimidated by men with guns on their hips,” she said. “One man got right in my face and screamed that my attitude was fucking shit.”
After she was directed to secondary, Binkowski said she was given a cursory inspection and asked to empty her pockets, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers did not ask her to unlock any electronic devices for search.
Officers did question her about where she had been in Tijuana, Binkowski said. When she told them she was a journalist, she was questioned about her reporting.
Binkowski told the Tracker that her car was searched twice before she was permitted to leave. She estimated that she was prevented from crossing the border for approximately an hour and a half before being permitted to enter the U.S.
Binkowski would be stopped each time she crossed the border for the remainder of the year. Read those incidents here.
Brooke Binkowski, a freelance multimedia reporter, realized in 2017 that she was being pulled into secondary screening each time she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,True,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,United States,, 2019-08-02 18:39:00.491988+00:00,2023-11-06 19:51:49.786264+00:00,"Journalist stopped at the border multiple times, told passport is flagged",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-stopped-border-told-passport-flagged/,2023-11-06 19:51:49.703289+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Brooke Binkowski (Freelance),,2018-07-01,True,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Freelance multimedia reporter Brooke Binkowski was stopped a second time by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in July 2018 as she was re-entering the United States at the San Ysidro port of entry.
As with her other stops, Binkowski told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was directed to a secondary screening area to have both her person and her vehicle searched. Binkowski told the Tracker that she had been in Mexico, in part, “hunting down documents.”
Officers questioned her about where she had been in Tijuana, Binkowski said, and when she told them she was a journalist, she was questioned about her reporting.
Binkowski, a U.S. citizen, told the Tracker that she felt her treatment by the CBP officers was unusual and unacceptable.
“They would go through my stuff and then they would put their hands near their guns or where their guns are supposed to be, they would get in my face,” Binkowski said. She also noted that the exclusively male officers treated her, “a small, 5-foot-3 skinny woman,” as though she was a physical threat.
“For them to be treating me as though I was physically intimidating for them to the point where they would shout things like, ‘Back away, ma’am, you’re going to have to back away! Get back!’ or ‘Don’t give me that attitude,’ it was not acceptable,” she said.
Binkowski told the Tracker she asked to speak to a supervising officer about her treatment. The officer informed her that there was a flag on her passport but that he could not provide any information on what it was for because he did not have access to the details.
He advised her to file a Freedom of Information Act request on her own name, which she did in May 2019. Binkowski told the Tracker that she put off filing the request as other issues took priority and she was uncertain whether she truly wanted to know the answer.
In a letter dated July 11 that Binkowski shared with the Tracker, CBP acknowledged its receipt of her request and advised her that “due to the increasing number of FOIA requests received by this office, we may encounter some delay in processing your request.” It further stated that “the average time to process a FOIA request related to ‘travel/border incidents’ is a minimum of 3-6 months.”
Freelance multimedia reporter Brooke Binkowski, shown here in 2015, was stopped multiple times while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,True,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,United States,, 2019-09-16 14:42:24.238788+00:00,2024-01-26 19:03:54.117728+00:00,"Washington Post journalist asked about political views by CBP, told to ‘fall in line’",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-journalists-asked-about-political-views-by-cbp-told-to-fall-in-line/,2024-01-26 19:03:54.028815+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Ann Gerhart (The Washington Post),,2018-06-16,False,Newark,New Jersey (NJ),40.73566,-74.17237,"Ann Gerhart, a senior editor-at-large for The Washington Post, and Michael Sokolove, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, were questioned about their politics and work by a Customs and Border Protection officer when returning to the United States on June 16, 2018.
Sokolove told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and his spouse, Gerhart, had landed at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey after a trip to the Caribbean island of Anguilla. Sokolove said that they both had listed “journalist” as their profession on their immigration forms, as usual.
They approached the customs desk together and handed the CBP officer their immigration forms, Gerhart said. She told the Tracker that the officer asked the usual questions of “Where were you?” and “What do you do?” But when they said they were journalists, Gerhart said, he asked who they worked for.
When they told him their media organizations, Gerhart said the agent responded that it was a “dangerous time to be a journalist.”
A remark, Gerhart said, she didn’t read as sympathetic.
Sokolove said that the officer might have asked a few other questions about their work, but that the next thing he remembers distinctly is the officer asking them what they thought of President Donald Trump.
“We both said a version of, ‘It’s not our job to have opinions about President Trump or to express them. We’re journalists, we just report the news,’” Sokolove told the Tracker. “Then I made the mistake of saying, ‘I think this family separation [policy] is really troublesome.’ I think that’s the word I used: I said I was troubled by it.”
At that point, Sokolove said, the officer became “very aggressive.”
“He said, ‘Well, I think you really ought to give him a chance and this country has to come together.’ And he just started expressing his own political views that the press was too aggressive with the president, too critical of the president, and we really ought to ‘fall in line and come together.’”
Gerhart told the Tracker that they passed through the checkpoint without further incident, but after the interaction “I was initially flabbergasted and then after that I was shaken by it.”
“I was quite taken aback to be coming back into the United States as a US-citizen—or really anyone—and be asked for what I took to be some kind of political fealty, if you will.”
Sokolove said the interaction left him shocked as well.
“I just found it appalling,” Sokolove said, “that upon coming back into this country with my U.S. passport that because I was a journalist I would be asked by an immigration officer what I thought about the president and then told exactly how we ought to be writing about him.”
Michael Sokolove, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, and Ann Gerhart, a senior editor-at-large for The Washington Post, were questioned about their politics and work by a Customs and Border Protection officer when returning to the United States on June 16, 2018.
Sokolove told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and his spouse, Gerhart, had landed at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey after a trip to the Caribbean island of Anguilla. Sokolove said that they both had listed “journalist” as their profession on their immigration forms, as usual.
They approached the customs desk together and handed the CBP officer their immigration forms, Gerhart said. She told the Tracker that the officer asked the usual questions of “Where were you?” and “What do you do?” But when they said they were journalists, Gerhart said, he asked who they worked for.
When they told him their media organizations, Gerhart said the agent responded that it was a “dangerous time to be a journalist.”
A remark, Gerhart said, she didn’t read as sympathetic.
Sokolove said that the officer might have asked a few other questions about their work, but that the next thing he remembers distinctly is the officer asking them what they thought of President Donald Trump.
“We both said a version of, ‘It’s not our job to have opinions about President Trump or to express them. We’re journalists, we just report the news,’” Sokolove told the Tracker. “Then I made the mistake of saying, ‘I think this family separation [policy] is really troublesome.’ I think that’s the word I used: I said I was troubled by it.”
At that point, Sokolove said, the officer became “very aggressive.”
“He said, ‘Well, I think you really ought to give him a chance and this country has to come together.’ And he just started expressing his own political views that the press was too aggressive with the president, too critical of the president, and we really ought to ‘fall in line and come together.’”
Gerhart told the Tracker that they passed through the checkpoint without further incident, but after the interaction “I was initially flabbergasted and then after that I was shaken by it.”
“I was quite taken aback to be coming back into the United States as a US-citizen—or really anyone—and be asked for what I took to be some kind of political fealty, if you will.”
Sokolove said the interaction left him shocked as well.
“I just found it appalling,” Sokolove said, “that upon coming back into this country with my U.S. passport that because I was a journalist I would be asked by an immigration officer what I thought about the president and then told exactly how we ought to be writing about him.”
Freelance journalist Scott Preston was stopped for secondary screening at U.S. Customs and Border Protection preclearance in Beirut, Lebanon, on June 6, 2018, while en route to Chicago from the United Arab Emirates.
Preston told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he had been through “special security treatment” in the past, but that this incident stood out. When passing through the screening area, CBP officers asked what he did and why he was traveling to the United States, then directed him to secondary screening.
Though Preston had previously passed through security, he told CPJ that he was directed through a second metal detector, patted down and taken to a separate room with multiple security cameras and an officer sitting behind a desk. Taking notes on a computer, the CBP officer asked Preston to account for as much of his four years in Lebanon as possible and about all of the countries where he had traveled and reported.
The officer also asked Preston for proof of his publications and how he “really” earned money: Preston said the officer seemed to not believe that it was economically feasible for him to rely on freelancing alone. The officer kept insisting that point until Preston said he had a roommate with whom he split living expenses, to which the officer responded, “Ah, that makes more sense.”
Preston pulled up his resume on his laptop to prove that he was a journalist and provide the officer with proof of his publications. While his laptop was open, the officer also asked Preston for information about his social media use, including what his handle and usernames were, and asked him to pull them up.
Preston told CPJ that the officer did not ask to see his cellphone, and at no point were any of his electronic devices removed from his sight.
After approximately 20 minutes of questioning, Preston was allowed to leave. He told CPJ that he was in secondary screening for around 45 minutes to an hour.
Mhamed Krichen, anchor and program host for Al Jazeera and board member for the Committee to Protect Journalists, was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection when flying in to JFK Airport in New York, on May 23, 2018.
Krichen — who has previously reported for Reuters, Radio Tunis, MBC, and BBC Arabic — was flying to New York from Doha, Qatar, in order to attend a CPJ board meeting. He landed at the airport at around 8:45 a.m. He said that he presented a CBP agent with his Tunisian passport, bearing a B1 U.S. visa, and was directed to secondary screening. The officer, whom Krichen told CPJ was consistently polite and kind to him, then led him through a police area, fingerprinted him, and accompanied him to the baggage claim area. While waiting for the bags, the officer flipped through his passport —which is three, thoroughly stamped passports glued together — and asked him why he travels so much. He simply responded, “I am a journalist.”
Once Krichen retrieved his luggage, the officer ushered him into an interview room and began asking him for personal details, including his wife’s name and birthdate, her workplace, her nationality, their full home address, and his contact information. Krichen said that the officer also asked about his work — where he has traveled and why, the names of the programs he hosts, the topics they cover, and who he has interviewed. After these “typical” background questions, Krichen said, the officer’s questions turned to terrorism, “which he seemed obsessed with.”
The officer asked if he’d had any relationship with an individual involved with terrorism, interviewed someone accused of terrorism, or had any relationship with someone suspected of terrorism. Krichen said that he pulled out his phone and unlocked it to double check the name of a former colleague — Sami al-Hadj — who had been arrested in Afghanistan and detained in Guantanamo Bay for six years. Krichen had interviewed al-Hadj about his time in the prison.
After asking once again if Krichen had any relationships with individuals suspected of or involved in terrorism, the officer and Krichen went through his suitcases, piece by piece. After that, Krichen said, the officer asked to see Krichen's unlocked cellphone. The officer asked Krichen if he uses his full name on Facebook and Twitter (he does) and then led him out to a waiting room while the officer walked to a nearby counter to examine the phone. Krichen said that he was able to observe the officer swiping through his phone for five to seven minutes, but he couldn’t see what the officer was browsing through.
Afterward, the officer made a call — Krichen told CPJ it appeared that he was calling a supervisor — and spoke on the phone for approximately ten minutes, all the while flipping through the notes he had taken during his interview of Krichen. Immediately after hanging up the phone, the officer stamped Krichen’s passport, returned his phone, and told him he was free to leave. Krichen said that the entire incident took about an hour.
Krichen told CPJ he considered asking why he had been stopped in the first place, as the officer never offered any explanation or apology for stopping him, but he decided against it. He said that he assumes he was selected at random, in part because he doesn’t want “to play the victim or the martyr.”
“I’m just glad I was only traveling with my phone and not my laptop,” Krichen said, “because they might’ve tried to search that too.”
According to a CBP directive released in January 2018, travelers are “obligated” to turn over their unlocked and unencrypted devices to CBP agents, who may perform “basic” searches of electronic devices without cause. The CBP directive states that “advanced,” or forensic, searches require “reasonable suspicion of activity in violation of the laws enforced or administered by CBP,” but basic lawful searches using less . The Supreme Court has upheld the so-called “border search exception” to the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, though it has not specifically ruled on the consitutionality of searches conducted in accordance with CBP's January 2018 directive.
Photojournalist John Rudoff was stopped for secondary screening at U.S. Customs and Border Protection preclearance in Vancouver, Canada, on Dec. 28, 2017, while en route from Bangladesh.
Rudoff told the Committee to Protect Journalists that ever since he took multiple trips to Greece following the refugee crisis and traveled to Cuba, he has been stopped for secondary screening when reentering the U.S. He said the screenings happen whether he is traveling alone or with family.
Rudoff said he was traveling light in December 2017, but was carrying all of his photography gear with him. After passing through preclearance screening, Rudoff was taken aside to a waiting area to wait for his name to be called. Rudoff said he seemed to be the only U.S. citizen directed there.
When his turn came up, officers went through his bags and patted him down. Rudoff told CPJ that the pat down was not irregular, as his hip replacement sets of alarms on many airport security systems.
Rudoff said that the officer searching his bags did not go through his cellphone or laptop, which he keeps encrypted and powered down when he travels. Officers did ask him to turn his two cameras on and off, Rudoff added, but did not ask him to go through the photos and did not go through the photos themselves.
The screenings, Rudoff said, were frequent enough that he learned to plan ahead for them. “And it’s obviously targeted, but it’s so predictable that I just factor it in.”
Rudoff told CPJ that none of the CBP officers who have searched him in secondary screening have offered an explanation as to why he is so often flagged for additional searches. “I have no choice, at least so far,” Rudoff said.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker includes incidents only from 2017 forward.
Latif Nasser, a reporter for New York Public Radio WNYC, was stopped for additional screening while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a series about border patrol in December 2017.
Nasser, then a U.S. permanent resident, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was recording b-roll, or additional background sounds of him crossing the bridge from the U.S. to Mexico and back in El Paso, Texas. Nasser said that he was wearing his headphones and was holding his recorder with a mic on it as he was returning to the U.S.-side of the border.
Nasser noticed a sign posted at the U.S. facility which specified that cameras, video cameras and cellphones were not allowed — Nasser said he assumed that audio recording was fine. He told CPJ that he continued recording throughout handing over his passport and having “very normal” exchanges with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.
When the officer saw his recorder, Nasser said the officer “freaked out.” Nasser said the officer asked what it was and whether he was currently recording, to which he responded yes. Nasser told CPJ that the officer then effectively shut down to entire line, ordered Nasser to stop recording and called for other officers to assist him.
The officers directed Nasser to a secondary screening room where they had him wait with another man, and placed his belongings — including his audio recorder, passport and green card — on a desk in his eyesight but out of his reach. While the officers examined his belongings, they did not play any files on the recorder.
Nasser waited in the screening room for approximately an hour, he said, with officers periodically approaching him and asking the same questions each time: Who was he, what was he doing, what was his reporting on, and why was he recording?
After the fourth or fifth time he was asked the same series of questions, Nasser said he told the officers that he needed to leave and that he knew the problem was with the minute-long recording of his interaction with the officer. Nasser told CPJ he offered to delete it, and after some awkward fumbling he did so.
At the end of the encounter, which Nasser said lasted around 2 to 2.5 hours, a final officer — who was wearing a kevlar vest with “DHS” printed on it — approached him and said that he hadn’t technically done anything wrong, but that his actions had been suspicious.
“We were just doing our jobs,” Nasser recalled the officer saying. While the first few officers were incredibly angry that he had been recording, Nasser said, when the final officer found out it was just audio recording, with no video, “he made it seem like it was no big deal.”
Alastair Jamieson, a journalist for NBC News, was detained for hours and repeatedly referred to as “fake news” by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer when arriving in Miami, Florida, on Nov. 30, 2017.
Before leaving for the United States, a Homeland Security official, whom Jamieson identified as William Fernandez, had questioned him and searched his bag before allowing him to board at London’s Heathrow Airport. There Jamieson noticed his boarding pass was flagged with “SSSS.”
Jamieson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that his boarding pass had often been flagged with the marker used to signal travelers for secondary screening, which he believed was due to his reporting trips to the Middle East and unusual travel patterns. He added that since registering with CBP’s Global Entry trusted traveler program a few years before, he had not been flagged.
Jamieson told the Tracker that after he landed at Miami International Airport at around 7:30pm, the automated machines at U.S. Customs flagged his picture with a red ‘X’ and he was directed into the normal processing line, a first for him since applying for Global Entry.
“When I got to an agent, he immediately sent me off, without explanation, to the secondary questioning area, so I knew I was in for a long wait,” Jamieson said.
The secondary screening, Jamieson told the Tracker, was “wild.”
“I had expected a long wait,” he said. “I had not expected to be barked at by CBP agents who were trying to create a kind of ‘boot camp’ atmosphere in which everyone was intimidated and in fear of giving the wrong answer.”
The CBP officer, whom Jamieson identified as Officer Jones, confiscated his phone and kept it out of his view. Jamieson noted that because he had a screen lock, he does not believe it was accessed or searched. Officer Jones questioned him over the course of an hour, repeatedly using the term “fake news” in reference to his job and asking inappropriate questions about his romantic life.
“She knew my job without asking, and had clearly Googled my social media profile. She would ask why someone ‘with a good job at an American company’ would visit ‘these kind of countries,’” Jamieson said, referring to Turkey and other Middle Eastern states. “She then went through the list of my Facebook friends to ask which ones were friends or which ones I’d had sex with, or both.”
Totally. I couldn't believe the venom of these particular officers. They also read the list of my Facebook friends out loud in the waiting/holding area and asked me to confirm which ones I had slept with. The rules allow it...
— Alastair Jamieson (@alastairjam) October 5, 2019
Officer Jones also asked Jamieson to write out a list of countries he had visited—information listed in both the Global Entry and ESTA visa systems—but refused to give him a pen, and waited for him to borrow one from another detained traveler.
“Having written out a list of countries, she looked at it, said ‘That’s ridiculous,’ and ripped up the paper in front of me,” Jamieson said. Shortly after, she told him to take his passport and “get out.”
Jamieson was directed to the specialized baggage inspection area where an officer he identified as Officer Yueng mumbled a disparaging remark and questioned whether Jamieson was a cop or insurance salesman. When Jamieson said he was a journalist, the officer responded, “Ugh, worse,” and waved him away without searching his bag.
Jamieson filed a complaint with CBP on Dec. 6, detailing the encounters and expressing his frustration with a process he said was unnecessary and avoidable.
“Assertive and robust interrogation is a useful and important tactic for agents in keeping the US border secure. Yelling idiotic and vague questions, hurling insults and generally acting like elementary school bullies is neither effective nor an appropriate use of federal resources,” Jamieson wrote in his complaint.
CBP responded to Jamieson’s complaint on Dec. 19, writing, “Please allow me to express regret for any conduct that may have been perceived as rude or unprofessional during CBP processing. CBP takes allegations of employee misconduct very seriously and has instituted policies pertaining to abuses of authority.”
As a matter of policy, CBP does not disclose the outcomes of internal investigations or disciplinary actions taken against personnel.
In a 2019 interview, Jamieson told the Tracker that while he no longer works for NBC News, this incident has stayed with him. He said, “I haven’t been back to the U.S. since. Not exclusively because of this incident, but I’m certainly not in a hurry to return.”
Alastair Jamieson, here on a reporting assignment in Hungary in May 2018, said he was harassed and called ‘fake news’ by a U.S. Customs Border and Protection agent last time he entered the United States.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,Miami International Airport,U.S. non-resident,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,United Kingdom,, 2019-11-12 19:18:05.306954+00:00,2024-02-06 17:51:02.300107+00:00,Photojournalist stopped second time by CBP in less than a year,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-stopped-second-time-cbp-less-year/,2024-02-06 17:51:02.213633+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,David Degner (Freelance),,2017-10-25,False,Boston,Massachusetts (MA),42.35843,-71.05977,"Freelance photojournalist David Degner was flagged for secondary screening multiple times while flying between Cairo, Egypt, and the United States.
Degner, a U.S. citizen who was working out of Cairo, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was pulled aside after disembarking in Boston, Massachusetts, on Oct. 25, 2017. He said he sent out a Facebook notification saying that he was being stopped and interviewed and then signed out of all of his social media profiles.
Degner told CPJ that he acted to prevent another search of his phone and social media profiles like had occurred during a December 2016 screening. At that stop, Customs and Border Protection had pulled Degner aside for secondary screening at preclearance in Toronto, Canada on a trip from Cairo to the United States.
Degner said that during the December stop, he waited for half an hour before he was shown to an interview room where an officer was already seated. The officer asked him to unlock and hand over his phone.
At first, Degner refused, asking if the officer had the right to search his phone. Degner said that the officer handed him a pre-printed sheet saying that they have the right to examine anything that is coming into the United States. He asked what would happen if he refused and the officer told him that they would hold onto the phone until CBP could unlock it themselves, implying that it would be confiscated for weeks or months.
“I’m used to these types of security procedures from Egypt,” Degner told CPJ. He requested that the officer remain in the room while searching the phone—which he did—which took 10-15 minutes.
Degner said that when he asked why his phone was being searched anyway, the officer responded, “Just be glad I’m not asking to search your laptop and everything else, too.”
When he was flagged a second time less than a year later in Boston, Degner sent the Facebook notification and signed out of his profiles. Officers did not ask him to unlock his phone during the second stop, however.
Degner told CPJ that on both occasions he asked the officers why he had been selected for secondary screening, and on both occasions they said they couldn’t tell him why.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker includes incidents only from 2017 forward.
A reporter — who asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisal — was flagged for secondary screening in New York City while traveling to Istanbul, Turkey, on Sept. 30, 2017.
The reporter, who is a U.S. citizen, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was taken aside by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer while departing from JFK International Airport.
After asking the routine questions about addresses and contact information, the reporter said the CBP officer asked about his work. The questioning included what topics the reporter covers and whether he uses the messaging applications WhatsApp or Viber. The reporter also told CPJ that the officer asked him to sign a paper documenting how much currency he was traveling with.
During the questioning, the reporter asked the CBP officer his name. The reporter said the question seemed to make the officer very uncomfortable, and the officer tried to backpedal to avoid disclosing it. The reporter insisted and the officer eventually gave his name.
Citing his frustration with being stopped despite belonging to CBP’s Trusted Travelers Programs, which are designed to expedite security, the reporter told CPJ that after this incident he filed a Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act request. He received a response within six weeks that showed that he had been targeted for additional screening but not why.
In addition to having Global Entry, the reporter said, he now also carries a printed copy of his FOIA when he travels.
“It’s clear to me that these interrogations really depend on the officer, what questions they ask,” the reporter told CPJ.
Zainab Merchant, a graduate student at Harvard University and founder of online publication Zainab Rights, was stopped for secondary screening by Customs and Border Protection officers in Orlando, Florida, on Sept. 16, 2017.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security on Merchant’s behalf. According to the organizations, Merchant was returning from a personal trip to Morocco with her husband when they were both redirected to secondary screening.
As was the case with Merchant’s previous stop catalogued by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, the officer who questioned her asked about her article on her experience crossing the border in 2016 and asked what she aimed to accomplish by writing it. According to the complaint, the officer also said, “Please don’t write anything bad about us.”
The complaint also details that a CBP officer overheard Merchant speaking with another woman about their experiences while waiting in the screening area and reportedly said to them that when you fly, you sign off all your rights. “Do what you want, get a lawyer, get the courts involved, and do the redress, but you’ll never be able to get off,” the officer is quoted as saying.
Merchant and her husband were held in secondary screening for approximately three hours before being released.
Merchant did not respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment.
The complaint states that three months after the incident, Merchant received a voicemail from a DHS officer who identified himself as Agent Newcomb. He said, in regards to her security experiences every time she travels, that he “would like to come up with a solution that could make everyone happy.”
Merchant later met with Agent Newcomb and another officer who identified himself as Agent Jerome. The officers asked if she knew anyone who had been “radicalized,” hinting that if she provided them information they could resolve her travel issues. She declined to meet with them again.
The complaint states that the years of heightened security screenings has had a severe impact on Merchant. “She avoids flying if possible and experiences extreme frustration, anxiety, and humiliation when she does fly,” the complaint says.
In a 2018 opinion article in The Washington Post, Merchant wrote that her experiences being targeted for prolonged secondary screenings exposed the shifting values in America: “Its greatest qualities of freedom, liberty and opportunity have undoubtedly shaped the person I am today. But these values are slowly diminishing, and those liberties are being taken away from us little by little. I fear one day we will be unable to recognize it as the place we called home.”
Terry J. Allen, a senior editor for In These Times magazine, was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection while attempting to cross the U.S.-Canadian border on Sept. 4, 2017 and ordered to delete images she had taken of the border crossing.
Allen, who has reported for the Guardian, Boston Globe, Harper’s, and Salon, told Freedom of the Press Foundation that she took photos of buildings and vehicle congestion near the Highgate Springs–St. Armand/Philipsburg Border Crossing connecting Quebec and Vermont. She was traveling with a friend at the time and she stepped out of the car to take photos while stuck in traffic, according to an account she wrote about her experience for the online news site VTDigger.
When Allen arrived at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoint approximately thirty minutes later, a CBP agent asked Allen if she had been photographing the area. She responded that she had and that she was a journalist who often photographed border patrol stations.
Allen told Freedom of the Press Foundation that the agent, whose name she did not specify, then demanded her phone to delete the images she had taken. She refused to hand over the phone and told the agent that the images were on a camera, not her phone.
Allen wrote in VTDigger that she eventually deleted the images from her camera.
“Look you don’t have the right to demand this, but, here, I’ll delete the SD card in my camera,” she told the agent.
After checking the display of her camera to confirm that the images had been deleted, the CBP agent continued to demand Allen’s phone and after she again refused, he instructed the two of them to park and enter a nearby building.
Allen and her companion were then questioned by a second CBP agent, Supervisor Mayo, who showed the journalist a copy of a provision in the Department of Homeland Security’s Code of Conduct in response to her question about which regulations prohibit photography.
According to the provision, people need permission to photograph space occupied by a federal agency. The text of the provision, however, permits photographs of building entrances and lobbies for news purposes:
Except where security regulations, rules, orders, or directives apply or a Federal court order or rule prohibits it, persons entering in or on Federal property may take photographs of--
(a) Space occupied by a tenant agency for non-commercial purposes only with the permission of the occupying agency concerned;
(b) Space occupied by a tenant agency for commercial purposes only with written permission of an authorized official of the occupying agency concerned; and
(c) Building entrances, lobbies, foyers, corridors, or auditoriums for news purposes.
41 CFR 102-74.420
After showing Supervisor Mayo her camera to prove the photos of the border stop had been deleted, he returned both passports, and Allen and her friend were permitted to depart.
Stephanie Malin, a spokesperson for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told Freedom of the Press Foundation in an email:
“CBP Privacy policy prohibits us from discussing the details of a specific individual's inspection however while photography of federal facilities from outside is not prohibited for news purposes, all CBP federal inspection stations lend travelers a certain level of privacy protection under U.S. law and we must seek passenger permission to take photos of them if the photos show enough detail to identify someone or their property (vehicle, etc.). Additionally our officers are cognizant of the security risks that can accompany individuals taking photos of the ports, for example to be used to identify smuggling opportunities or to accomplish other nefarious activity. While we understand that was not the intent in this case, these are reasons why our officers may ask individuals not to take photos or ask to see the photos that have been taken.”
Journalist Terry Allen
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,Highgate Springs Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,yes,no,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,United States,, 2018-10-22 15:17:49.996670+00:00,2023-08-15 18:05:45.042454+00:00,Customs officers search reporter's car and phone at Canadian border,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/customs-officers-search-reporters-car-and-phone-canadian-border/,2023-08-15 18:05:44.877734+00:00,,,,"Border Stop, Equipment Search or Seizure",2018 CBP directive (https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2018-Jan/CBP-Directive-3340-049A-Border-Search-of-Electronic-Media-Compliant.pdf),"cellphone: count of 1, vehicle: count of 1",,Anne Elizabeth Moore (Freelance),,2017-08-03,False,Detroit,Michigan (MI),42.33143,-83.04575,"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 her an “unusual” number of questions. She said that typically the officers will ask five or six questions, but this time the officer asked twice as many. Moore said that the CBP officers asked her why she was entering Canada, and after she said that she was a journalist about to write about an event, one of the officers “said something like, ‘We’re going to keep an eye on you,’ or something ominous like that.”
She didn’t give the comment a second thought — until that evening, when she tried to cross the border back into the United States around 11:30 p.m. Immediately after she pulled up to the U.S. border stop, she said, CBP officers told her to park her car and leave her phone on the dashboard, powered on and unlocked. The officers also asked her if she had a passcode on her phone, which she did not.
The officers directed Moore into an office to wait, and while she wasn’t questioned, the officer working at the desk would not tell her how long the search would take and that she’d simply need to wait. After about 15 minutes, she was allowed to return to her car, which had clearly been searched. Moore told CPJ that the officers left some of her belongings strewn on the ground and the doors and trunk partially open.
Moore also noticed that her phone had been moved, and she is believes it is possible, if not likely, that the CBP officers may have accessed some of her confidential information and sources, including information related to a piece she is currently working on that involves illegal border crossing.
Journalists have little legal protection when it comes to electronic device searches at the border. A 2018 CBP directive requires agents to consult legal counsel if an individual objects to a search on the grounds of attorney–client privilege, but does not provide the same protection for journalists protecting confidential sources or materials. This can leave reporters, their unpublished work, and their sources vulnerable.
Isma’il Kushkush — a former acting bureau chief of the New York Times in East Africa and International Center for Journalists fellow — was stopped at the U.S.-Canadian border in Vermont on July 30, 2017, while driving back from Montreal.
Kushkush, a Sudanese-American dual citizen, is one of 11 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU of Massachusetts. According to the legal complaint, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers directed him to a secondary screening area.
After waiting for an hour, an officer instructed Kushkush to unlock his phone, threatening to seize it if he did not comply. Stating that he was doing so against his will, Kushkush unlocked his phone. According to the complaint, the officer wrote down the password and took the phone out of Kushkush’s sight for at least an hour.
According to the complaint, three hours after Kushkush was initially detained, he was escorted to a separate area where officers questioned him about his journalistic work. The complaint does not detail what questions the officers asked him during that time.
After a total of three and a half hours in the inspection area, Kushkush was released.
Kushkush has reported being detained at the border on at least five previous occasions between 2013 and 2016. He said that these stops lasted between two and three hours and frequently involved requests for access to his electronic devices. CBP officers also directed Kushkush to secondary screening in Jan. 2017, detained him for almost two hours and searched his notebooks and cellphone.
In 2018, Kushkush told the Committee to Protect Journalists, “Clearly I was singled out. It was clear that there was a pattern, that I was specifically being, you know, targeted and questioned about my whereabouts.”
Kushkush said the screenings made him more hesitant around traveling and reporting abroad.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker includes incidents only from 2017 forward.
On Nov. 12, 2019, a federal court in Boston ruled in favor of Kushkush and the other plaintiffs in the ACLU and EFF’s case against DHS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP. The court found that warrantless searches of electronic devices at the border violate the Fourth Amendment, The Associated Press reported. Moving forward, border officers must now demonstrate individualized suspicion before searching a traveler’s device.
In a press release from EFF, ACLU attorney Esha Bhandari said, “This ruling significantly advances Fourth Amendment protections for millions of international travelers who enter the United States every year.”
“By putting an end to the government’s ability to conduct suspicionless fishing expeditions, the court reaffirms that the border is not a lawless place and that we don’t lose our privacy rights when we travel,” Bhandari said.
A Louisiana-based reporter—who asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisal—was flagged for secondary screening at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport while traveling from Bogota, Colombia, on July 10, 2017.
The reporter told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he had been in Colombia on vacation. He made it through primary screening but was flagged for secondary screening.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers directed the reporter to empty his pockets and then searched everything in his bag and wallet. He told CPJ that the officers did not search his electronic devices, which he said would have been a red line.
The reporter said the officers came across an old note in his wallet that he had written to remind himself to file a Freedom of Information Act request for documents in connection with an incident in Louisiana. The reporter told CPJ that the CBP officers assumed the note was referring to the shooting of Louisiana representative Steve Scalise and others at a baseball practice in Virginia the month before. Though he told the officers that wasn’t the case, they took the notes out of the room and photocopied them. When they returned, the reporter said the officers questioned him about his work and the notes for approximately an hour before he was released.
The reporter told CPJ that he filed a FOIA request for his records within a few days of the incident because “I knew something wasn’t right.” He received the documents on Sept. 12, which he said showed that he had been specifically flagged for an “enforcement referral” screening.
Ali Latifi, a journalist for Al Jazeera English, was flagged for secondary screening by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers when he flew to Los Angeles from Istanbul on May 27, 2017.
Latifi is a dual Afghani and American citizen who has reported for the New York Times, the Telegram, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune. He told the Committee to Protect Journalists that when he arrived in Los Angeles, he scanned his U.S. passport at the customs area and received a document with an ‘X’ printed over his face. When he reached the passport counter, a CBP officer instructed him to step aside for additional screening.
Latifi said that the CBP officer emptied his backpack and took both his U.S. and Afghan passports. The officer also asked Latifi to unlock and turn over his phone, which Latifi told CPJ he did, believing he didn’t have much of a choice. Latifi said that the officer looked through his phone for approximately five minutes, but did not ask to search his computer.
After finishing the search, the officer asked Latifi a number of questions, including details about where he lives in Kabul, Afghanistan. He also asked Latifi for his U.S. address and phone number, although Latifi hasn’t lived in the United States in four years. The CBP officer also asked Latifi about his occupation and, upon hearing that he was a journalist, what he writes about. He then asked Latifi to name a recent article that he had written that he had really liked and asked, “If I Google your name and LA Times, will it come up?”
All told, Latifi said, the questioning and search were “annoying but fine.”
This was far from Latifi’s first secondary screening, he told CPJ that he has been stopped everywhere from Heathrow to Dubai. He plans to file a FOIA request to see what information he can glean about the rationale behind his repeated stops.
“I’ve always wondered what they see on the screen and what makes them suspect,” he said.
Ali Hamedani, a reporter for BBC World Service, was stopped in Chicago O’Hare airport on May 18, 2017, two days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning entry to the U.S. for 90 days for individuals from seven countries, including Iran.
The British-Iranian journalist, who said he was traveling on a Media I Visa, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that border agents detained and questioned him for over two hours. Hamedani also said that border agents searched his phone and computer and read his Twitter feed.
Passengers arrive at O'Hare airport in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. February 4, 2017.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,returned in full,False,law enforcement,O'Hare International Airport,U.S. non-resident,False,False,yes,unknown,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,"Iran, United Kingdom",, 2019-11-08 17:26:47.213697+00:00,2024-02-29 20:05:08.224320+00:00,"Journalist, graduate student stopped for secondary screening, electronic devices searched",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-graduate-student-stopped-secondary-screening-electronic-devices-searched/,2024-02-29 20:05:08.123155+00:00,,,"(2019-11-12 12:43:00+00:00) Federal court finds warrantless searches of devices violates Fourth Amendment of travelers, (2021-06-28 00:00:00+00:00) Supreme Court declines to hear case on warrantless electronic device searches at border","Border Stop, Equipment Search or Seizure",,"cellphone: count of 1, computer: count of 1",,Zainab Merchant (Independent),,2017-03-05,False,Toronto,Canada,None,None,"Zainab Merchant, a graduate student at Harvard University and founder of the online publication Zainab Rights, was subjected to secondary screening and her devices searched by Customs and Border Protection officers at preclearance in Toronto, Canada, on March 5, 2017.
Merchant is one of 11 plaintiffs in a pending lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU of Massachusetts. According to the legal complaint, filed in Sept. 2017, Merchant was returning to the U.S. after visiting her uncle in Toronto. When CBP officers directed her to secondary inspection, they took her laptop and and ordered her to turn over her smartphone.
Merchant objected, in part because her phone contained pictures of her without her headscarf that she did not want the male officers to see, but also because it contained information and communications related to her blog. According to the complaint, a CBP officer told her that her phone would be seized indefinitely if she did not comply.
“In tears, Ms. Merchant unlocked her phone. She also provided the password to unlock her laptop,” the complaint added.
During the hour and a half that Merchant’s electronic devices were out of her sight, CBP officers thoroughly searcher her bags, read her graduate school notebooks and questioned her about her religious affiliation and her blog. Officers specifically asked about an article she had written for Zainab Rights describing her experience at the border in 2016 which was critical of CBP’s actions.
Merchant spent approximately two hours in the inspection area before she was permitted to leave for the boarding area. When her devices were returned, her Facebook app was open to her friends list, which was not the case when she turned over her phone.
According to a separate complaint the organizations filed with DHS on Merchant’s behalf in 2018, when she arrived at the boarding gate, she underwent another pat-down.
The complaint states that Merchant was also subjected to additional screening when she landed in Newark, New Jersey for her connecting flight. The Transportation Security Administration officer checking Merchant’s boarding pass told her she would need to pass through security again, a process which took an hour and caused her to miss her flight.
In a 2018 opinion article in The Washington Post, Merchant outlined how she was detained for secondary screenings multiple times in the previous two year period, including one in 2016 that involved her husband and then-6-month-old baby for six hours. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker includes incidents only from 2017 forward.
In the Post, Merchant said that as the stops continued she filed a complaint through DHS’s Travel Redress Inquiry Program, wrote to members of Congress and applied for TSA Precheck and CBP Global Entry, programs designed to expedite domestic and international travel. She said her efforts were to no avail.
“Am I being stopped because I am Muslim, or because my family once traveled to Iran to visit a holy shrine? Is it because of my criticism of U.S. policies on the multimedia website I run to raise awareness about injustices around the world? Maybe it’s all three,” Merchant wrote. “Federal officers have asked me about my writing and religion, both of which are protected by the First Amendment.”
Merchant did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s requests for comment.
Mohammed Tawfeeq, a CNN editor and producer, was detained Sunday at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and subjected to secondary screening while returning from an assignment on Jan. 29, 2017.
Tawfeeq, an Iraqi who is a legal permanent resident of the U.S., has filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that the president's executive order was used to unlawfully detain him, reports said.
A traveler arriving from overseas is fingerprinted while his paperwork is checked by a border patrol official at the passport control line in Newark International Airport Aug. 24, 2009 in Newark, New Jersey.
",None,None,None,None,False,1:17-cv-00353,['DISMISSED'],Civil,None,False,None,Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport,U.S. permanent resident (green card),False,False,unknown,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,Iraq,, 2017-07-31 21:56:17.136188+00:00,2021-11-16 20:10:23.603618+00:00,Russian documentary journalist denied entry to the U.S.,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/russian-documentary-journalist-denied-entry-us/,2021-11-16 20:10:23.554178+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Anonymous documentary journalist 1 (RTD),,2017-01-15,False,Moscow,Russia,None,None,"A Russian documentary reporter was denied entry to the U.S. while trying to fly from Moscow's Shremetyevo airport to New York City on Jan. 15, 2017.
The journalist, who asked to remain anonymous, works for RTD — a documentary channel that's part of Russia's government-funded TV network RT — and has dual Russian and Canadian citizenship. As a citizen of Canada, she can visit the United States without a visa. She has visited the U.S. on multiple occasions and had never had any problems entering the country.
On Jan. 15, though, she attempted to check-in to her flight but was informed that her name had been flagged by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She said that Russian border officials told her that, because she was flagged, they had to check with U.S. border officials before allowing her on the flight.
She said that the Russians spoke on the phone with their American counterparts for over an hour and then asked her whether she had ever been to Iraq or Syria. She answered that her work for RTD had taken her to both countries. Following more discussions with American border officials, the Russians told her that the U.S. would not allow her to enter the country.
She later asked the U.S. Embassy why she was not allowed to travel to the U.S., but the embassy referred her to to the Department of Homeland Security. A few months later, she received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security stating that the department could neither confirm nor deny that she had been stopped for any reason.
The logo of Russian television network RT is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017.
,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,Shremetyevo Airport,U.S. non-resident,True,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,"Canada, Russia",, 2023-06-29 16:59:18.880790+00:00,2024-02-29 20:05:31.420969+00:00,"Filmmaker restrained, phone seized at U.S.-Canada border crossing",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/filmmaker-restrained-phone-seized-at-us-canada-border-crossing/,2024-02-29 20:05:31.336637+00:00,,,,"Border Stop, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure",,cellphone: count of 1,,Akram Shibly (Independent),,2017-01-04,False,Lewiston,New York (NY),43.17256,-79.03588,"New York-based independent filmmaker Akram Shibly was stopped by border authorities and his phone searched for the second time in four days when returning to the United States from Canada on Jan. 4, 2017, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of Shibly and 10 others, including three journalists.
Shibly was first stopped for secondary screening and his cellphone searched when returning from a work trip to Toronto on Jan. 1, the complaint stated.
Three days later, Shibly was again returning home from Toronto to Buffalo, New York, via the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge. In the secondary screening area, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer again ordered him to hand over his phone. Shibly refused.
The complaint alleged that three officers physically restrained him in order to seize the device:
“One of the officers squeezed his hand around Mr. Shibly’s throat, causing Mr. Shibly to suffer great pain and fear of death,” the lawsuit stated. “Another officer restrained Mr. Shibly’s legs, and a third officer pulled Mr. Shibly’s phone from his pocket.”
In a 2019 affidavit, Shibly said that the screen lock on his cellphone was still disengaged as a result of the first stop, and the device was taken to a separate room and presumably searched for 15-20 minutes.
He described both searches as an invasion of his privacy. “I felt abused and unwelcome returning home,” Shibly said. “I felt like CBP invaded my personal and professional life, and to this day I am still traumatized by these invasive practices.”
The ACLU and others filed the lawsuit in September 2017 against the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP, arguing that the plaintiff’s First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated.
On Nov. 12, 2019, a federal judge in Boston ruled in favor of Shibly and the other plaintiffs, finding that warrantless searches of electronic devices at the border violate the Fourth Amendment, The Associated Press reported.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First District overturned the federal district court's ruling restricting device searches and, in a judgment filed Feb. 9, 2021, instead denied the plaintiffs’ claims.
“We find no violations of either the Fourth Amendment or the First Amendment,” Circuit Judge Sandra Lynch wrote in the court’s findings. The ruling held that advanced searches of electronic devices at the border do not require a warrant or probable cause, and that basic border searches of electronic devices are routine searches that may be performed without reasonable suspicion.
The ACLU and EFF filed a motion on April 23 petitioning the Supreme Court to hear the case, but the court declined in June, effectively ending the lawsuit.
“Nobody should fear having border agents rummage through their most private information for no good reason,” Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU’s speech, privacy and technology project, said in a statement to Reuters. Wessler added that the Supreme Court will still need to address the privacy issues raised by warrantless searches at the border soon, given disagreements among lower courts.
Isma'il Kushkush — a former acting bureau chief of the New York Times in East Africa and International Center for Journalists fellow — was stopped at the border on Jan. 3, 2017, after arriving on a flight from Israel.
Kushkush, a Sudanese-American dual citizen, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that Customs and Border Protection officers were waiting for him as he got off from the plane and took him to the inspection area where they went through his bags and notebooks. He said that he was detained for about an hour and a half. Officers searched through his notebooks and one officer asked for his cellphone.
Kushkush has reported being detained at the border on at least five previous occasions between 2013 and 2016. He said that these stops lasted between two to three hours and frequently involved requests for access to his electronic devices.
International passengers arrive at Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles
",None,None,None,None,False,1:17-cv-11730,['DISMISSED'],Civil,returned in full,False,law enforcement,Dulles International Airport,U.S. citizen,False,True,yes,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,"Sudan, United States",, 2023-06-29 16:54:55.976094+00:00,2024-02-29 20:06:21.795193+00:00,Filmmaker forced to unlock phone at U.S.-Canada border crossing,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/filmmaker-forced-to-unlock-phone-at-us-canada-border-crossing/,2024-02-29 20:06:21.702601+00:00,,,,"Border Stop, Equipment Search or Seizure",,cellphone: count of 1,,Akram Shibly (Independent),,2017-01-01,False,Lewiston,New York (NY),43.17256,-79.03588,"New York-based independent filmmaker Akram Shibly was stopped by border authorities and his phone searched when reentering the United States from Canada on Jan. 1, 2017, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of Shibly and 10 others, including three journalists.
According to the lawsuit, Shibly was returning from a work trip in Toronto via the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge in New York when a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer directed him to a separate area. There officers directed him to fill out a form that included a request for his cellphone password. Shibly initially left the line blank.
“A CBP officer examined the completed form and ordered Mr. Shibly to provide his password. Mr. Shibly told the officer that he did not feel comfortable doing so,” the complaint stated. “In an accusatory manner, the officer told Mr. Shibly that if he had nothing to hide, then he should unlock his phone.”
Feeling he had no other choice, the lawsuit stated that Shibly unlocked and disengaged the screen lock, also disclosing his social media handles when asked. CBP officers then left the room with the device for at least an hour.
Shibly was stopped again at the same border crossing again three days later, where his phone was forcibly taken from him.
The ACLU and others filed the lawsuit in September 2017 against the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP, arguing that the plaintiff’s First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated. In a 2019 affidavit, Shibly described the searches as an invasion of his privacy.
“I felt abused and unwelcome returning home,” Shibly said. “I felt like CBP invaded my personal and professional life, and to this day I am still traumatized by these invasive practices.”
On Nov. 12, 2019, a federal judge in Boston ruled in favor of Shibly and the other plaintiffs, finding that warrantless searches of electronic devices at the border violate the Fourth Amendment, The Associated Press reported.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First District overturned the federal district court's ruling restricting device searches and, in a judgment filed Feb. 9, 2021, instead denied the plaintiffs claims.
“We find no violations of either the Fourth Amendment or the First Amendment,” Circuit Judge Sandra Lynch wrote in the court’s findings. The ruling held that advanced searches of electronic devices at the border do not require a warrant or probable cause, and that basic border searches of electronic devices are routine searches that may be performed without reasonable suspicion.
The ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a motion on April 23 petitioning the Supreme Court to hear the case, but the court declined in June, effectively ending the lawsuit.
“Nobody should fear having border agents rummage through their most private information for no good reason,” Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the ACLU’s speech, privacy and technology project, said in a statement to Reuters. Wessler added that the Supreme Court will still need to address the privacy issues raised by warrantless searches at the border soon, given disagreements among lower courts.