Phone Searches at the US Border Hit a Record High

United States Custom and Border Protection officials person sweeping powers to search anyone’s phone erstwhile they are entering the country—including US citizens. Newly released figures amusement that implicit the past 3 months, CBP officials person been searching much phones and different devices than ever before.

From April done June this year, CBP searched 14,899 devices carried by planetary travelers, according to stats published connected the agency's website. While the figures aren’t breached down by instrumentality type, the CBP has the quality to hunt phones, computers, cameras, and different electronics. The April-June spike tops the erstwhile highest quarterly fig of astatine slightest 12,766 devices, which were searched by CBP officials from January done March 2022, by 16.7 percent.

The summation successful telephone and instrumentality searches astatine the borderline comes arsenic the 2nd Trump medication takes assertive actions connected migration, with a immense summation successful budget for the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and thousands of arrests taking place. Since the commencement of the year, radical traveling to the US person reported long detentions, intrusive telephone searches and allegedly being denied entry owed to content connected their devices. In caller months, immoderate European travelers person canceled trips to the US, portion the fig of Canadian visitors to the US has dropped for seven consecutive months.

“The existent contented is the chilling effect it has connected each travelers,” says Esha Bhandari, a lawman manager of American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. Bhandari adds that anyone could beryllium taxable to a imaginable instrumentality search, including those who are captious of the medication oregon lawyers and journalists who whitethorn person delicate accusation connected their devices. “This is fundamentally a limitless authorization that they assertion for themselves to hunt travelers without a warrant to hunt the afloat scope of accusation radical transportation connected them,” Bhandari says.

The CBP’s information shows that determination has been an uptick of telephone and electronics searches implicit the past decade, passim assorted administrations. According to the agency’s statistics, which are published utilizing the fiscal twelvemonth moving from October to September, determination were 8,503 searches successful 2015. By 2018, this fig had risen to 33,296 instrumentality searches, and the past afloat twelvemonth of information available, the fiscal twelvemonth 2024, determination were 46,362 searches.

The latest quarterly statistic for the past 3 months of 2025 amusement 13,824 “basic” searches and 1,075 “advanced” searches. Basic searches tin impact a borderline cause manually scrolling done someone’s telephone and inspecting its contents. This means an cause whitethorn beryllium capable to find immoderate accusation connected a instrumentality but whitethorn not person the clip oregon quality to behaviour a heavy inspection of what is included successful messages oregon buried successful photograph reels. Meanwhile, precocious searches impact a overmuch much intrusive approach: connecting forensics tools to the instrumentality to extract immense reams of data. Despite the spike successful wide instrumentality searches, the fig of precocious searches has remained comparatively dependable implicit the past 21 months.

The CBP did not instantly respond to WIRED's petition for comment. “The fig of travelers crossing the borderline that acquisition a borderline hunt of their physics devices is small,” the CBP’s web pages say. It says that successful the past twelvemonth wherever information is available, “less than 0.01 percent” of planetary travelers had their devices searched.

Anyone entering the US—from citizens to impermanent visa holders—can perchance person their phones oregon electronics searched by CBP staff. Across the country, borderline zones typically autumn extracurricular of Fourth Amendment protections that necessitate warrants for devices to beryllium searched by officials. On its website, the CBP says that radical should contiguous their devices “in a information that allows for the introspection of the instrumentality and its contents.” In short, that means unlocked and perchance giving the password to borderline agents.

If a US national oregon greenish paper holder refuses a search, they cannot—at slightest successful theory—be denied introduction to the country. However, their devices whitethorn beryllium seized temporarily, and they could beryllium taxable to other questioning. Foreign visitors tin look detention oregon deportation for refusing a search.

While precocious searches person made up lone a tiny percent of telephone searches successful caller years, that could beryllium acceptable to alteration arsenic the 2nd Trump medication progresses. As WIRED reported astatine the commencement of July, Customs and Border Protection is successful the process of procuring precocious integer forensics tools to process information from physics devices. The CBP presently has aggregate contracts for forensics tools from Cellebrite.

In a request for information, which was published successful June and updated successful July, the CBP said it is looking for much tools that tin process information from travelers’ devices and assistance borderline agents recognize it. One illustration listed the quality to “search a database of substance messages to find patterns oregon ‘hidden language’ successful fishy communications that whitethorn not beryllium evident astatine archetypal look.”