BIG BROTHER AT THE BORDER

Last week’s column on the “Real ID” deadline to allow drivers licenses to be used to clear TSA at the airport struck a nerve. 

Among the many comments received, was this from Jan van Eck, who wrote:

“It is not, and never was, the purpose of TSA inspectors to go check identification papers a la East Germany:  "papers, please."   Their function is to check for weapons being brought aboard an aircraft.  That's it.

When (your column) counsels the citizenry to go get a Real-ID driver's permit  (and fork out an extra $30 for it), you are subtly encouraging the erosion of personal liberties, including the liberty to travel freely without some government bureaucrat questioning you.”

Oh, but that fun is just beginning, Jan, as you’ll find the next time you return to the US from overseas.

There have been many reports lately of returning green card and visa holders getting seriously hassled, and in some cases detained and interrogated for several days, by CBP (US Customs & Border Patrol).  As you know, ICE is picking up immigrants and starting to deport them in big numbers.  The agency says they went after “the worst, first” but now there’s pressure from the White House to pick up the pace, including our border entry points.

Several countries have issued advisories to their citizens planning trips to the US.  And travel between Canada and the US seems to have dropped off a cliff: air travel down 13%, land crossings by 23%.

But even US citizens returning home face increased scrutiny.  Sure, they can ask you to open your luggage and root around in your unmentionables.  But that’s just the beginning.

Did you know that CBP can ask to see your cellphone… and ask you to unlock it for inspection?  You can refuse but your journey will be interrupted, possibly for hours, as they query you further.  And your phone can be detained for days while they try to break in.

What are they looking for?  Is it just incriminating photos, who you follow on Tik Tok and what you may have said about President Trump?

CBP can even download what’s on your phone… every photo, text message and email… as well as all your contact info.  Some media reports indicate all of this personal info is then stored in a Federal database.  Imagine what could happen to that data if it fell into the wrong hands.

What can you do to protect your privacy?

Well, you can wipe your phone before entering the US and retrieve your data from the cloud when safely home.  Or you could travel with a “burner phone”, a low-cost, prepaid mobile phone that you use temporarily and then discard or stop using.

It’s one thing to protect our country from immigrants, legal or otherwise.  But it’s quite another to invade our citizens’ privacy on a potential witch hunt for political dissent.