WASHINGTON (AFP) A key US national security agency on Friday defended the right of border officials to seize laptops from travelers even if they are not suspected of criminal activity, as lawmakers and rights activists slammed the policy as unconstitutional and alarming.
"Since the founding of the republic, we have had broad authority to conduct searches at the border to prevent the entrance into this country of dangerous persons and goods," Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman Amy Kudwa told AFP.
"In the 21st century, the most dangerous contraband is most often contained in electronic media, not on paper. The age of micro-fiches and paper files is long over," she said.
The DHS last month made public policy documents, one of which authorizes border officials to "detain documents and electronic devices, for a reasonable period of time to perform a thorough border search ... on-site or at an off-site location."
"In the course of a border search, and absent individualized suspicion, officers can review and analyze the information transported by any individual attempting to enter, reenter, depart, pass through, or reside in the United States," said the document, which is available online.
Tim Sparapani, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called such seizures unconstitutional.
"It's a seizure without developing probable cause that a crime has been or is being committed. The Customs and Border Protection Division of the DHS is trying to turn the US border into a constitution-free zone," he said.
Senator Russ Feingold, who earlier this year chaired a congressional hearing into the DHS's practice of searching and sometimes confiscating electronic equipment, said the searches were "alarming" and an invasion of privacy.
"I am more convinced than ever that legislation is needed in order to protect law-abiding Americans from this gross violation of their privacy. I intend to introduce such legislation soon," Feingold said in a statement.
But Kudwa argued that passing a law to regulate border searches "would have a very dangerous effect on the split-second assessment that law enforcement officers need to make at the border."
"If they needed to get a court order to search something ... it would have a very dangerous and chilling effect on our ability to screen for dangerous people and effects."
The ACLU's Sparapani also suggested that seizing laptops left border officials a step behind terrorists.
"Any smart terrorist won't bother putting dangerous images or documents on their computer or cellphone or Blackberry or digital camera. Rather they'll put them on a remote server and access them when they have entered the US," he said.
It also smacked of discrimination, he added.
"Almost all business travelers possess a Blackberry, a zip-drive, or a mobile phone, so how is it exactly that they are selecting the individuals whose devices are searched and seized?" he asked.
"That is the unknown question and it smacks of discrimination."
Last month, the ACLU accused the DHS of endangering "US citizens' privacy and civil liberties without increasing security" through its policies and programs, including a terrorist watchlist which the rights group claims has grown to more than one million names.
The ACLU also accused US border agents of unfairly targeting US citizens of Asian or Arab origin and of racially profiling Latino residents of the United States at immigration checkpoints.
To me they have the right to do it,weather its right or wrong not up to me,its not just travlers into the usa,but usa citizens as well
Paulh
