U.S. Customs and Border Protection

[Wendy M. Grossman]

It's all very well discussing the theoretical rights and wrongs of this 
policy, but the fact is that AFAICS it's always been the case that if 
you are crossing a border you and everything you are carrying are 
subject to inspection by both customs and immigration. Arguing about 
whether they have the right to examine your laptop seems to me about as 
sensible as arguing about whether they have the right to grill you about 
where you've been and where you're going. It may be unpleasant; it may 
even be unconstitutional. But the reality is that the average tired, 
stressed-out traveler faced with people with the authority to put him in 
jail is going to feel threatened enough to comply whether or not the 
policy is legal. As a *practical* matter I think one must assume that 
*all* national customs officials have this power. And although I agree 
that a laptop feels like an extension of your brain, it would be 
illogical and unlikely for a customs officer to do a strip search and 
then wait for a court order to check the contents of your laptop. If 
they suspect you and want to examine you, ISTM that rightly or wrongly 
you are at their mercy.

See also people whose cars have been taken apart at the Canadian border 
by inspectors looking for drugs. They don't have to put it back together...

I'm not saying it isn't scary; obviously it is. (As is the US's 
statement that it can impound your written notes, etc. - as someone who 
makes a living from the contents of my brain as scrawled all around me 
on pieces of paper, both physical and electronic, I find the prospect of 
having it all removed extremely alarming.)

wg

Roland Perry wrote:
> In article 
> <6ED388AA006C454BA35B0098396B9BFB03EE3A88@uxsrvr20.atlas.ukerna.ac.uk>, 
> Andrew Cormack <Andrew.Cormack@ja.net> writes
>> And presumably if a customs person at the border insists on having my
>> laptop as a condition of entry, I could always change my mind about
>> wanting to enter?
> 
> By air, I would have thought that such a decision wasn't 
> desirable/possible on the grounds that you can't catch a flight back on 
> your own without first going landside, and if they are going to have to 
> escort you staying airside (and getting a ticket/boarding pass etc) 
> that's sufficiently inconvenient for them that they could easily decide 
> they were going to search you anyway.
> 
> I doubt it would have a happier outcome by train or car.
> 
> This is unlikely to be a particularly USA thing.