Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Border Searches

Crossing Borders with Electronics: Know Your Rights and Risks

Womble Bond Dickinson on 4/21/2025

With increasing digitalization of our lives and businesses, privacy concerns from border searches of phones, laptops and tables are a growing concern for professionals, executives, and frequent international travelers. U.S....more

Workplace Immigration Update: H-1B Cap Reached, Venezuela TPS Revived, and Electronic Device Searches

Fisher Phillips on 4/15/2025

Employers should be mindful of four critical immigration developments that have recently taken place and could impact your workplace. Here is the latest update from our Immigration Team....more

Outlier or Trend? A Possible Narrowing of the Border Search Exception for Electronic Devices

WilmerHale on 11/16/2023

As we wrote in a note back in December 2020, the border search exception to the Fourth Amendment is a powerful investigative tool relied on by law enforcement to gather critical physical and digital evidence because it allows...more

The First Circuit Court of Appeals confirms government’s expansive authority to search electronic devices

Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP on 2/19/2021

In a closely watched decision, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit confirmed the government’s expansive authority to search cell phones, laptops, and other electronic devices at the border. On February 9, 2021, the...more

ABA Gets Lawyers Heightened Protections For Device Searches At International Borders

Jackson Lewis P.C. on 1/31/2018

U.S. Customs searches have become increasingly invasive over the years. Pursuant to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operates under the “broad search exception”, which...more

Can They Really Do That?

Womble Bond Dickinson on 11/8/2017

Best Practices for Managing U.S. Border Searches of Electronic Devices - Effective October 18, 2017, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS), Immigration & Customs...more

A Border Search Doctrine Without Borders? A Court Pushes Back Against Searches of Laptops and Cellphones

Alston & Bird on 6/4/2015

Last year, the Supreme Court in Riley v. California (134 S. Ct. 2473 (2014)) recognized the unique characteristics of laptops and cellphones and held that police generally may not search the cellphone of an individual who has...more

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