The mayor of Stockton,California was briefly detained and had two of his laptops and a cell phone confiscated by homeland security agents at the San Francisco International Airport earlier this week after returning from a trip to China.
“A few minutes later, DHS agents confiscated all my electronic devices including my personal cell phone. Unfortunately, they were not willing or able to produce a search warrant or any court documents suggesting they had a legal right to take my property. In addition, they were persistent about requiring my passwords for all devices,” Mayor Anthony Silva said.
Silva was not allowed to leave the airport until he gave his passwords to the agents, which the mayor’s personal attorney, Mark Reichel, claimed is illegal.
The mayor said the agents told him confiscating property from travelers at the airport was “in fact routine and not unusual,” and promised to return the items within a few days.
Silva was also told he had “no right for a lawyer to be present” and that being a U.S. citizen did not “entitle me to rights that I probably thought.”
Story here
Bonus link :
Stockton mayor's detention linked to ongoing probe
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2 comments:
Actually, seizing property suspected of being contraband (broadly defined) without a warrant at the border or its functional equivalent (such as an international airport) is perfectly legal, as part of the government's constitutional responsibility to protect the borders. However, the password part seems illegal. I think TSA is banking on the fact that they're not a LE agency, but if they're acting as agents of LE agencies (and they probably are, if this is part of an ongoing investigation), they may have just screwed their case.
But I doubt if this was TSA at all, since it was an incoming, not an outgoing, passenger. It was probably CBP, which is a LE agency and should know better.
Damn you sound like you know what you are talking about. Please come back and comment any time.
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