National Security, Border Searches

Border Search Inspection of Electronic Devices: What Organizations and Their Employees Need to Know

Potomac Law Group, PLLC on 5/20/2025

Employees traveling internationally on behalf of an organization must take steps to protect sensitive, confidential, or proprietary data carried on electronic devices. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has broad...more

Digital Privacy and Cross-Border Issues

Littler on 4/30/2025

Under the new administration, the Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) is enforcing immigration laws more strictly, thus making the entry landscape into the United States challenging and burdensome for foreign...more

Will CBP Search Your Laptop and Cell Phone at the Port of Entry?

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP on 12/11/2024

Cell phone and laptop searches do happen but they are relatively rare. Although the Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures is drastically reduced at a port of entry, as are expectations of...more

Federal Appellate Court Approves Pretext Border Search Based on Trade Secret Theft Suspicion

Kohrman Jackson & Krantz LLP on 5/18/2023

For almost nine years, Haitao Xiang, a Chinese national and U.S. resident, had worked for Monsanto, Co in St. Louis as a research application engineer specializing in hyperspectral imaging technology. As with most jobs of...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

Inspection of Personal Electronic Devices Conducted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers on the Rise

Foster Garvey PC on 1/29/2018

International travelers from and to the United States may increasingly encounter an inspection of personal electronic devices conducted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) officers. The selection may be for a...more

Immigration Fact and Fiction for the U.S. Employer: More on CBP Searching Electronic Devices – What is Left of the Fourth...

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace on 4/10/2017

As mentioned in a prior blog post, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) can conduct searches of individuals departing the United States, a fact that many are not aware of. In fact, the rule that failure to declare...more

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