Feds Try To Forcefully Search Wall Street Journal Reporter's Phone

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
If you are a traveler who is re-entering the country, you basically have no right to privacy. For instance, the Department of Homeland Security can seize your phone without a warrant—or motive. Federal policy dictates that “patrol agents have sweeping powers to search a person -- even without ‘reasonable suspicion’ of any crime.”

"They grilled me for an hour," she wrote. "I answered jovially, because I've had enough high-level security experiences to know that being annoyed or hostile will work against you." Abi-Habib said that the agents then asked for her cellphones in order to "collect information." "That is where I drew the line," Abi-Habib wrote. "I told her I had First Amendment rights as a journalist she couldn't violate and I was protected under." According to Abi-Habib, the agent then presented a DHS document that read that the government has the right to confiscate phones within 100 miles from U.S. borders.
 
I could wish these types of instances would feature individuals who have difficult-to-verify or unverifiable pasts - and not positively identifiable types like journalists etc.

I did google "Constitution Free Zone".....and Hawaii is screwed. :p

I hate the ACLU with a passion, but they have a seemingly comprehensive write-up about this zone.

Notably:
"The regulations establishing the 100-mile border zone were adopted by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1953."

It's an amazing thing to me that this zone and its mere existence hasn't come up in the entirety of the immigration debate we've been having all these years.
 
Last edited:
Know your rights.

Although this zone is not literally "Constitution free"—constitutional protections do still apply—the Border Patrol frequently ignores those protections and runs roughshod over individuals' civil liberties.
Roughly two-thirds of the United States' population, about 200 million people, lives within the 100-mile zone that an outdated federal regulation defines as the border zone—that is, within 100 miles of a U.S. land or coastal border.
Know Your Rights: The Government's 100-Mile "Border" Zone - Map
 
You cross a border, you have no rights with regard to search and seizure. If you need to move sensitive data you need to store it somewhere globally, preferably in a country like Spain, Iceland, or Norway, and then access it once you are at home. Obfuscation and obscurity are your only defences, your data can't cross on your person.
 
Any data you are worried about, just copy to folder, compress, encrypt and copy to SDcard. Mail as first class letter. Send a separate copy as an email attachment or cloud storage file. Erase files from device in question. Be sure to leave a vacation's worth of boring pictures on device to give them something to waste time looking at.
 
the agents then asked for her cellphones in order to "collect information." the agent then presented a DHS document that read that the government has the right to confiscate phones within 100 miles from U.S. borders.

Why don't they spell surveillance out loud?
 
This shit is totally out of hand. I'm not sure, but was this a thing before the Patriot Act? That needs to get repealed. Ars has a story up on body cavity searches - again, you have no rights. Bend over, grab your ankles, and smile as they force a fist up your ass.
 
Unless, of course, you break the law as a non citizen entering that 100 mile barrier.

I'm not finding much info on this woman, but I do not see anything about her being from America, so it does sound like she is a foreigner.

However it does look as though that Constitutional rights apply to ANY person within the borders of America (or the sovereignty of America is probably more accurate).

Although if this is true, then I find something like Guantanamo Bay to be an issue, because those people are clearly not receiving the protection of the Constitution, yet they are in a place that is under the jurisdiction of the United States of America.

14th Amendment
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.



Guantanamo Bay excerpt from Wikipedia, there is that pesky J word.
The United States assumed territorial control over the southern portion of Guantanamo Bay under the 1903 Cuban–American Treaty of Relations. The United States exercises complete jurisdiction and control over this territory, while recognizing that Cuba retains ultimate sovereignty.
 
The Constitution is now toilet paper, nothing more, so get used to the roughness of that 240 year old piece of parchment.
 
The Constitution is now toilet paper, nothing more, so get used to the roughness of that 240 year old piece of parchment.

I was listening to Steven Crowder (Louder With Crowder) debate Christopher Titus (from the old TV Show Titus) about gun control, and Titus referred to the Constitution as a "living document" multiple times and that's why we should change it as needed. I have heard the term, but that was my first time actually hearing someone use it as an actual basis for their argument. I do not listen to much progressive media though.

*Fantastic debate too, Titus was an idiot.
 
This shit is totally out of hand. I'm not sure, but was this a thing before the Patriot Act? That needs to get repealed. Ars has a story up on body cavity searches - again, you have no rights. Bend over, grab your ankles, and smile as they force a fist up your ass.
From what I heard, she's not even an American, and I have a feeling that she was targeted for a reason having thrown up some flags or coming from a conflict region or meeting with unscrupulous types and the like.

The alternative is to do nothing, and have a revolving door for anyone, and then we have the next mass Muslim shooting/bombing/truck-rampage/axing, etc. and we scream at the feds "How could you just let terrorists setup cells all over the place"?

When is the last time a regular Joe Schmoe had a body cavity search? I'm flying all the time, and its never been much of an issue, and considering how much of a joke swiss cheese our border is already with over 10 million illegals currently residing in the US, one of which recently murdered that poor innocent girl even though we knew about him and had deported him four times already, I'm all for it.

If you don't have borders, you don't have a country, and this would only impact people crossing the gate as it were, and I also don't understand people that have a hissy fit when Costco wants to check your receipt before you leave. There's no mal-intent here... Costco doesn't want to lose their merchandise, and that savings is passed on to the consumer. Everyone wins, except for thieves.

Likewise, yes, just deal with the fact that 99.9% of the time the government is not up in your business, but if you are crossing the border and throwing up flags you may be investigated in detail. Its the price of security in a dangerous world.
 
Likewise, yes, just deal with the fact that 99.9% of the time the government is not up in your business, but if you are crossing the border and throwing up flags you may be investigated in detail. Its the price of security in a dangerous world.

DITTO!!!
 
Any data you are worried about, just copy to folder, compress, encrypt and copy to SDcard. Mail as first class letter. Send a separate copy as an email attachment or cloud storage file. Erase files from device in question. Be sure to leave a vacation's worth of boring pictures on device to give them something to waste time looking at.
Better yet, hide random garbage data inside the jpg's so they think they are disguised, encrypted archives and waste tons of resources trying to decrypt garbage.
 
Just as an FYI she is a US born citizen according to here.

Why You May Be Chosen for an Inspection

Authority to Search

All persons, baggage, and merchandise arriving in, or departing from, the United States are subject to inspection, search and detention. This is because CBP officers must determine the identity and citizenship of all persons seeking entry into the United States, determine the admissibility of foreign nationals, and deter the entry of possible terrorists, terrorist weapons, controlled substances, and a wide variety of other prohibited and restricted items. Various laws that CBP is charged to enforce authorize such searches and detention (see, for example, 8 U.S.C. § 1357 and 19 U.S.C. §§ 1499, 1581, 1582).
 
Last edited:
It's an amazing thing to me that this zone and its mere existence hasn't come up in the entirety of the immigration debate we've been having all these years.

It has, repeatedly. Just not in the sound bite version playing on network and cable news.
 
The alternative is to do nothing, and have a revolving door for anyone, and then we have the next mass Muslim shooting/bombing/truck-rampage/axing, etc. and we scream at the feds "How could you just let terrorists setup cells all over the place"?

Except we have the police state AND we have the mass shootings, bombings, etc.

So... I'd rather have the freedom, because the tyranny isn't coming with any safety.
 
Except we have the police state AND we have the mass shootings, bombings, etc.
I don't think you've ever lived in a real authoritarian police state.

At the last Trump rally, the protesters were even allowed to beat up and destroy personal property of people just practicing their first amendment rights, and the police were told in advance to stand down and take no action except to stop deadly violence. And we have BLM terrorists that get away with gross criminality on a daily basis scott-free. That's not a very aggressive police force. I lived in Singapore, where public assembly of more than five people without prior government approval is illegal, where you have no real constitutional protections anywhere, you can be deported on a whim, and most police are plains clothes and their preferred arrest method is discreet where you'll be walking down the street and four guys just grab you and pull you aside to be arrested on the down-low. But you know what? Singapore is safe as hell! My parents had no issue with me hanging out in downtown late at night by myself in a super population dense city, because there is no crime because they literally kill many of the criminals (mandatory death penalty processed very quickly for having any drugs for example). Contrast that with Houston, where we have open prostitution on the streets on Bellaire every weekend, with drug dealers at every bus stop.

In fact, I can't think of any place I've lived, and I've been around, where we had as professional a police force as the United States where you can't just slip them $50 and be on your way, and have as many freedoms as we enjoy in our daily lives.

To give up some of those freedoms just when I'm crossing the border? Psshh, big deal, I comply and am on my way.
 
Except we have the police state

Americans who actually believe this crap are beyond stupid. Talk to someone who immigrated from another country, like a former Warsaw pact nation maybe. Someone who is old enough to remember what is was like.

You internet-educated, left-wing indoctrinated kids have no idea what a police state is.
 
Americans who actually believe this crap are beyond stupid. Talk to someone who immigrated from another country, like a former Warsaw pact nation maybe. Someone who is old enough to remember what is was like.

You internet-educated, left-wing indoctrinated kids have no idea what a police state is.


Meh...give it another 20 years or so, and maybe their children will.
 
Heh, not going to find much on my phone. I've got 7 phone numbers stored and 3 downloaded apps. I really just use it as a phone, timer and calculator. I'm on a pay-as-you-go plan so I disabled cellular data as soon as I got the phone to keep costs down.
 
Back
Top