This is bad. This is really bad. American customs is now taking it upon themselves to make moral judgments on visitors to this country.
André says he was planning to visit his boyfriend, who was working in New Orleans. But when he was going through Customs preclearance at Vancouver airport last October, he was selected for secondary inspection, where an officer took his phone, computer and other possessions, and demanded the passwords for his devices.
“I didn’t know what to do. I was scared, so I gave them the password and then I sat there for at least an hour or two. I missed my flight,” André says. “He came back and just started grilling me. ‘Is this your email?’ and it was an email attached to a Craigslist account for sex ads. He asked me, ‘Is this your account on Scruff? Is this you on BBRT?’ I was like, ‘Yes, this is me.’”
Holy crap. They’re demanding passwords and browsing through the contents of your phone now? What ever happened to any right to privacy? I’m flying to DC in a few weeks. I think. I’m not giving them access to anything, so maybe I won’t be.
André made it through on that flight, after being humiliated and grilled and missing one connection, but on a second trip, he thought he’d be clever and delete those ‘incriminating’ apps from his phone. Two lessons here: they had recorded his passwords and had them ready to use next time he showed up, and nope, deleting stuff from your phone doesn’t work.
“They went through my computer. They were looking through Word documents,” André says. “I had nude photos of myself on my phone, and they were questioning who this person was. It was really humiliating and embarrassing.”
“They said, ‘Next time you come through, don’t have a cleared phone,’ and that was it. I wasn’t let through. He said I’m a suspected escort. You can’t really argue with them because you’re trapped,” he says.
“Don’t have a cleared phone.” Jesus fucking christ. I despised the TSA already, but this is criminal, fascist, and simply vile.
A suspected escort??? Yes, because nothing threatens air safety and homeland security like the spector or high-class prostitution.
A video from Ars Technica: What to do when border officials ask for your passwords
So Minnesota is now a foreign country, requiring PZ to go through customs to reach DC? /sarc.
shit
with Customs able to demand passwords, TSA* will follow soon.
The 4th Amendment [doesn’t apply to non-citizens, I guess to Customs not limited by Constitution] is supposed to disallow unwarranted searches yet some states now allow police to enter and search and seize without a warrant.
Welcome to the Police State of Orwell’s 1984
* Totally Shitty Assholes
Wonder what they’d say to me? I don’t even have a smartphone. Would they refuse to let me in because they can’t snoop on my phone? The only recorded numbers on it are my father, my home, and the director of the local community theatre, who is listed only by her first name.
I might be a suspected nonentity, and therefore not allowed to travel because they can’t see everything about me on my phone?
iknklast:
I have an extremely basic phone, not in the least smart. No recorded phone numbers at all, no info whatsoever. Good thing I rarely fly. They must be looking for all those evil paid protesters or something.
Fuck, welcome to the Fascist States of America.
I just read an article on BBC or maybe CNN explaining what rights you have when coming through Immigration. I was surprised that we have few. You have the right to say no to a password request, but they can make you sit for hours as they get a warrant or you get an attorney.
If Trump adds California to the list of seven ‘very bad’ countries, I won’t be able to visit my family!
It could be worse; wait till they post agents outside bathrooms who are authorized to group your crotch to make sure you have the right equipment.
Even better, the Canadian government is still slated to pass Bill C-23, a law which would allow American border agents to detain Canadians in Canada. Combined with the policy of detaining everyone for not sharing passwords, Canadians could be arrested by Americans on Canadian soil for saying they no longer want to enter the States and wish to turn around.
“Sovereignty!”
If you can, travel without electronic devices. If you must travel with your phone, make sure your data is in some form of cloud service, then factory reset your phone, wiping all data. Once you are across, you can set up your cloud accounts again and re-sync your data.
And computers – See if you can arrange a rental or borrow a machine when you get to your destination. Again, cloud services make it relatively easy to re-sync your data after you have cleared the border.
#7 – This is very scary. I urge my fellow Canuckians to contact their MP and protest this bill. While you’re at it, protest against Trudeau’s dropping of electoral reform.
I didn’t try chasing down a cite just now, but IIRC, courts have held that citizens can be subjected to pretty much any sort of search when crossing the border. Can’t remember the reasoning, but I’m sure it involved “compelling public interest,” and the same rationale as DUI checkpoints: if everyone gets searched the same, it’s not a violation because it’s not targeted at any individual.
That US immigration is distinctly unfriendly is not new news. 2 examples, both before Sept 11, 2001:
Me, returning to US on a J-2 visa with authorization to work and employed by a hi-tech firm in Silicon Valley – delayed because the immigration folks didn’t understand that being a J-2 with authorization to work meant that I could be employed…
A friend, visiting from the UK: I was probably an H1-B by then. My friend was asked why he was visiting, and who he was visiting? The officer was worried that my friend (with good database/IT skills) was looking for hi-tech work and not on a vacation as claimed. Eventually my friend resorted to showing his UK Immigration Service Warrant Card to prove to the US officer that he already had a job… (my friend left the Immigration Service after a few years and seems a LOT happier).
And we are both very WASP-looking.
I saw this story on Pink News a couple of days ago.
The police state angle is terrifying. But the homophobia angle is just as bad. Were it a heterosexual dating or hook-up app I very much doubt he would have suffered the same indignities. Apparently he had to explain the intricacies of US gay hook-up slang to the guards too, and reports say that his interest in unprotected sex made them much more hostile to him.
It appears that being a gay man with an interest in the sex is frowned upon now. At least among the people responsible for America’s ongoing security pantomime. Or, rather, the degree to which it is still frowned upon in some parts of society has now become clear.
The obvious solution is to buy a $10 Walmart phone before you go.
The better solution is to Trumpize your electronics.
Make sure your social media and news websites are all GOP, Trump, and christofascist.
Why yes, I’m a Southern Baptist who loves Donald Trump and hates whoever you hate.
Does TSA really think a mole or terrorist trying to enter the USA is going to have a screen saver of Osama bin Laden?
re 9:
That Ars Technica talk linked above, begins by noting the exception ICE has in the 4th Amendment due to exceptional causes, the compelling cause being “protection of homeland security” [paraphrased]
That the exception allows the ICE to forgo requirement of warrant before searching everything a visitor is bringing into the country. Which addresses iknklast@4, with no devices on one, no threat, so clear to enter. At best, yet … (even a foreign sounding surname will get one detained.)
html tagfail: only Ars Technica was to italicized. the remainder: normal text. oops
@8: If you can, travel without electronic devices. If you must travel with your phone, make sure your data is in some form of cloud service, then factory reset your phone, wiping all data. Once you are across, you can set up your cloud accounts again and re-sync your data.
And wouldn’t any “security” agency with an ounce of common sense realize that that is exactly what any self-respecting terrorist would do?
I am lucky to have no reason to travel from Canada to the US, except perhaps as a tourist. The Mr. and I have decided to cancel plans to see Vegas and the Grand Canyon indefinitely and I know others who are rethinking American holidays. The TSA is only the tip of things that scare me about the US right now.
There’s two bits:
1. the TSA, which does the safety screening.
2. the CPB, which checks for contraband and undesirable people
The TSA can refuse your entry on a plane because they think you’ll blow it up. They’ll berate you for your water bottle, and if you sound muslim they might decide you can’t fly. TSA doesn’t operate outside the US (and not even at all airports in the US).
The CPB can refuse you entry on US soil because whatever damn crazy idea they have that day. They decide you’re here to steal jobs from Americans because you marked “business” on your reason for travel? Nope, can’t come in, and from now on you need a visa. They decide you don’t like Trump because they asked you and you didn’t say how much you love him? See ya — or rather not: if you try to cross again, you’ll be arrested. There’s basically no appeal to the CPB’s decision.
The CPB can’t ban US citizens from entry, theoretically. They can hold you up for a while and not give you access to a lawyer in any reasonable amount of time, but you have a right of return. Non-citizens though are SOL.
André was blocked by CPB, given he was starting in Canada.
bluebottle@8: read the OP. The dude was refused on the second time *because* he wiped his phone.
What you need is to have “normal” stuff on your phone. It’s only a matter of time until there are services to thwart the CPB’s search — delete all the numbers except “mom” and two friends, fire up a very bland facebook profile, have some very bland work emails.
The automatically-generated bland Facebook profile is technology that has been well developed already.
And don’t have a name that might sound Muslim. A British math teacher escorting a group of school kids was refused entry to the US even before got there. For some unknown reason the US refused him entry and he was hauled off a plane in Reykjavik.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/20/british-muslim-teacher-denied-entry-to-us-on-school-trip?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=214221&subid=17290955&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
@ 16 voyager
Southern France is very nice in late March or early April. The people are very friendly, unarmed, and the food is quite nice.
@15
And wouldn’t any “security” agency with an ounce of common sense realize that that is exactly what any self-respecting terrorist would do?
When you want to enter the States, you have to fill a form saying you are not a terrorist nor a war criminal.
That’s not really a good sign of common sense, but I suppose some terrorists are kind enough to announce themselves
re: “So Minnesota is now a foreign country, requiring PZ to go through customs to reach DC? /sarc.”
“Passengers of a domestic Delta flight from San Francisco to New York were told to show their identity documents to uniformed agents of the Customs and Border Protection agency upon their arrival at John F. Kennedy airport on Wednesday evening.”
Source
re 21:
and
——————-
*puke*
@21:
My understanding is that the main purpose of that is that lying to a government officer is an offense in and of itself. So even if they don’t have enough evidence to actually convict you on the terrorism charges, they can use the fact that you lied on the form to at the very least forcibly deport you anyway.
Of the 68 countries that I’ve visited in the World, I can confirm that the US is the worst border to enter. Last time, I had to enter the USA, then promptly leave, because the stupid airport at Miami airport doesn’t have a transit lounge, FFS .One of our party, a woman in her sixties, was frog-marched by four goons to a holding room, then later to the departure lounge, for the heinous crime of having an orange in her handbag. That was 1983, and it’s got worse?
voyager #16: The Grand Canyon is well worth the hassle. On the other hand, the best view of Vegas is in the rear-view mirror, getting smaller…
@24:
So what if lying to a government officer is an offense? If they don’t have evidence to convict you of terrorism charges, they don’t have evidence of you lying. Why would anyone admit that they are a terrorist or a war criminal? Totally meaningless requirement.
Thank The Old One there ain’t no such thing as fake IDs!
Note also, an ID isn’t required to fly. If you show them a credit card with an explanation that you “lost” or “forgot” your ID (forgot it in my pants, officer!), they have full access into those systems so they can “verify” your identify. It’ll take an extra hour or so, and you have to go through a load of shit, but they’ll let you on.
So when you arrive at your destination without ID, and ICE demands your papers, what then? ID isn’t required for domestic travel and it doesn’t matter “what everyone else does”.
Land of the free, home of the brave. Right.
That’s not strictly true, at least not in a legal sense. ‘Evidence of’ in this case refers to ‘sufficient evidence to convict’. It is quite possible to at the same time to have not enough evidence to convict someone of terrorism while still having enough evidence to convict someone of the lesser charge of lying about being a terrorist. In general, the greater the punishment usually applied to the charge, the stricter the evidence requirements. That sort of thing is why you often get lots of charges added for a particular incident: even if you can’t get the murder charge to stick, you can probably still get the person for unsafe storage of a firearm.
And that’s on top of the fact that someone can be lying about being a terrorist without ever committing a terrorist act inside the U.S., based on previous history potentially from decades ago.
US travel agencies report that foreign tourism is already down almost 7%. Looks like Trump is killing a few thousand to hundred thousand jobs, but that’s a price he’s willing to make you pay.
@Paul #15:
Well, that’s just giving the data to them before you ever travel. Or even if you don’t travel.
Not that it would be wise, but what the hell would happen if you said you WERE a terrorist and war criminal on that form?
Lots of argy-bargy at first, to be sure, but would they have anything at all to pin on you, were you completely innocent?
As for it being a lie to a Federal officer, you could answer, “I’m an American citizen. I have, by proxy of elected leaders, committed acts of terrorism and war crimes. Try me on that, if you can put Presidents Bush and Obama on the stand, as well.”
Oh, tourism from Europe is down by 12%
I’m planning to get rid of all of my Google services, because this allows the US government, and any US officer or employee or contractor who fancies enough, to access my stuff.
@euclide #21
Many countries do that.
The question is usually phrased something like “do you have or have you ever had any affiliation to a terrorist organisation?”.
“Having an affiliation to a terrorist organisation” is too generic to be a crime, but lying on an official document can get you in jail.
The idea is that this would allow authorities to seize an individual whom otherwise they could not seize.
It’s not an *entirely* unreasonable thing to do, but it does seem very open to abuse.
F.O.@34:
Of course it’s open to abuse. That’s almost certainly deliberate.
davidnangle@32:
Well, they can’t necessarily charge you with anything. But there’s nothing stopping them from denying you entry into the country and being as nasty as they think they can get away with in their questioning.
Border Services is, as others have already noted, often treated as a law unto themselves and have been for generations. It’s not unheard of for things confiscated at the border for whatever reasons the border guard could think of to disappear into someone’s collection afterward.
Seconded. There is a small risk of running into the mildly deranged penguin, best advice is to get to the Fromagerie before she raids it. Count the number of penguin-shaped holes in the wall, it’s like one of the better star-ratings systems: The more, the better.
Last time I filled out such a form it still asked whether I was a member of a communist party. Late 90s, the forms hadn’t quite caught up to the geopolitics yet.
It’s not illegal to be a member of the communist party, but it *is* illegal to lie about it. It’s also grounds for suspecting you’re at risk of blackmail.
I live in China, and my best friend’s boss was just denied a business visa to go to a trade show because they said he didn’t prove that he had legitimate business in the US. This despite his having booked a booth at the trade show, and having an invitation letter from a US customer. My friend is up next, and if he’s also denied, they’ll have to cancel the show, costing them potential sales.
well, at least until lePen takes over.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/24/teflon-le-pen-unshaken-as-corruption-plagues-french-election
Daniel@38: sadly, your friend’s story is pretty normal. We’d need stats to see if there was a trend.
Even being white, elderly, a frequent US visitor and a popular children’s author doesn’t stop you from being treated like shit by the TSA: linky
It may not be illegal, but being a Communist, or a member of any other totalitarian party can still grounds for denying permanent residence. I had to answer that question when I applied for my green card 15 years ago, and it’s still on the form, as is a question about being engaged in prostitution.
In fact here is the very question on today’s Green Card application form:
Membership doesn’t automatically deny you, otherwise millions of Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants would not have been allowed to stay, but it’s a red flag nonetheless (no pun intended).
I saw that. Australians are pretty goddamn pissed off at that, actually. Even more than I would have expected.
maybe they will see it as a warning sign for what is happening in their own country?
nah, they will blindly follow the US into oblivion.
There’s a problem with that narrative. I think you can all spot it yourselves.
Giliell: The fact that the TSA had nothing to do with it?
There’s the narrative that the CPB is shitty to brown people. Lofty’s link shows that they are, in fact, shitty to everyone. I presume they are far shittier on average depending on how dark your skin is, but I personally try not to cross the US border if I can avoid it because even as a citizen they bother me from time to time. I know how to answer their trick questions; I’ve seen what happens when you answer wrong (you go to the special room).
You can take Lofty’s narrative to be that the government *should* be nice to white people. Or you can take the narrative to be that the agency is out of control.
If you really want to see harassment at the border, travel by bus.
Giliell @ 44: Kind of embarrassed to say that it took me a minute or two… but then that’s what it is.
And this is why I did, and still do, loudly complain about DUI checkpoints, and “border” checkpoints that are a hundred miles from the border.
The fourth amendment is not supposed to be about balancing the public interest against personal inconvenience. The fourth amendment is about balancing the public interest against government abuse and tyranny. Unfortunately, the far-right now owns all language about government tyranny, and even mentioning this as an argument gets one immediately pegged as a “nut” by left-leaning people. Fuck me. We’re going to be fucked as long as the people on the left do not appreciate the imminent dangers of a police state.
PS:
We already live in a police state. In half the US states, police can demand to see your ID cards with basically no cause (“stop and identify” statues). In many US states, police will put up DUI checkpoints and search and seize your cars and papers with absolutely no (individual) cause. In some US states, up until recently (not sure if they’re still doing it), police can stop you and physically search your body (“first”) with basically no cause (“stop and frisk”). Don’t even get me started on the farce that is the TSA.
This is what a police state looks like. This is what a police state is. A police state is not a state with militarized police. A police state is where you must submit to government searches and seizures at the whim of the government, where your every moment is subject to arbitrary government scrutiny.
Oh, and because I’m in a ranting mood, let me mention one more tidbit that barely anyone knows about: ludicrous violations of the right of freedom of assembly:
Civil, not criminal, gang injunctions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_injunction
How the fuck is this even a thing? Fuck me.
“6. Have you EVER been a member of, or in any way affiliated with, the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party?”
Every Republican Party member has to say yes to that and is disqualified from entering the US, right?
Thought not. They should have to, since they are members of a totalitarian party.