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 nan country—including US citizens. Newly released figures show that complete nan 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 world travelers, according to stats published connected nan agency's website. While nan figures aren’t surgery down by instrumentality type, nan CBP has nan expertise to hunt phones, computers, cameras, and different electronics. The April-June spike tops nan 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 nan separator comes arsenic nan 2nd Trump management takes fierce actions connected migration, pinch a immense summation successful budget for nan Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and thousands of arrests taking place. Since nan commencement of nan year, group walking to nan 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 nan US, while nan number of Canadian visitors to nan US has dropped for seven consecutive months.

“The existent rumor is nan chilling effect it has connected each travelers,” says Esha Bhandari, a lawman head 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 nan management aliases lawyers and journalists who whitethorn person delicate accusation connected their devices. “This is fundamentally a limitless authority that they declare for themselves to hunt travelers without a warrant to hunt nan afloat scope of accusation group transportation connected them,” Bhandari says.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In a request for information, which was published successful June and updated successful July, nan CBP said it is looking for much devices that tin process information from travelers’ devices and thief separator agents understand it. One illustration listed nan expertise to “search a database of matter messages to find patterns aliases ‘hidden language’ successful fishy communications that whitethorn not beryllium evident astatine first look.”