J62

"As an American citizen I am not comfortable in giving up rights under the disguise of enhanced security. "

I'm not quite sure which rights you think you have that you are now giving up. US & international law is and always has been clear on this. Upon entering a country you do not have rights until you are granted entry.

You can claim to assert rights all you want but no law professor, no court or precedent in the land will agree with you.

fmpden

O' contrary an American citizen does not give up his rights when he steps across a border. I do not have "American rights" in another country but that is not the discussion. When I return and am knocking on the door, I have those rights.

AAFrequentFlyer

No you don't, until immigration and cstoms get done with you. As US citizen you have the right to be admitted to the country but you give up any and all other rights until you satisfy immigration and customs officials that you are indeed a US citizen or legal visitor and you're not bringing anything illegal into the country. Customs does not need a warrant to strip search you, to empty any and all suitcases, to ask about you, your job, your reason for being out of country, etc. etc.

Why is that so hard for you to grasp this simple concept?

J62

You are correct. I was in err to make a blanket statement about rights in general.

The particular right which you seem to be concerned about is protection against unreasonable search and seizure as granted under the 4th amendment to the US Constitution. Long standing case law (in place long, long before 9/11/01) shows that the standard required to conduct a search at US borders is far less stringent than once inside the US.

raspberryberet

From the article: <i>Maria Udy, a marketing executive with a global travel management firm in Bethesda, said her company laptop was seized by a federal agent as she was flying from Dulles International Airport to London in December 2006. Udy, a British citizen, said the agent told her he had &quot;a security concern&quot; with her. &quot;I was basically given the option of handing over my laptop or not getting on that flight,&quot; she said.</i> This doesn't sound like a case of a customs agent upon ENTERING our country, it sounds like a TSA agent upon leaving the US from Dulles.

Furthermore, <i>A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman, Lynn Hollinger, said officers do not engage in racial profiling &quot;in any way, shape or form.&quot; She said that &quot;it is not CBP's intent to subject travelers to unwarranted scrutiny&quot; and that a laptop may be seized if it contains information possibly tied to terrorism, narcotics smuggling, child pornography or other criminal activity.</i>

The thought police described in the article is part of the post-9/11-&quot;1984&quot;-plastic baggie-B.S. security world we live in today, not the Tariff Act of 1930 era.

Puh-lease!

Shirin Sinnar says it very well in the article: <i>&quot;&quot;the government is going well beyond its traditional role of looking for contraband and really is looking into the content of people's thoughts and ideas and their lawful political activities.&quot;</i>

shellio

Oddly enough, TSA has a blog and addresses this question, since apparently they've been getting a lot of calls. http://www.tsa.gov/blog/

&gt;&gt;As the [Washington Post] article correctly states, this is a customs issue and not one TSA is involved in.

TSA does not and will not confiscate laptops or other electronic devices at our checkpoints. Our officers’ are solely focused on the safety of the traveling public and are looking for explosives and other prohibited items. Should one of our officers find something suspicious, we will immediately contact local law enforcement and potentially the local bomb squad. We will not ask for any password, access to any files or take the laptop from you for longer than it takes to determine if it contains a threat.

Should anyone at a TSA checkpoint attempt to confiscate your laptop or gain your passwords or other information, please ask to see a supervisor or screening manager immediately.&lt;&lt;

SamH

I haven't read the article posted by clevelandbrown, but I haven't had any type of devices confiscated or otherwise given any more than cursory attention.

I do think that the information AAFF is giving is indeed correct. And correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it in the pre 9-11 days that we had to actually boot up our laptops at the security checkpoint? Not at Customs, but at the entrance to the gate area.

I share the same attitude toward TSA as AAFF by the way.

AAFrequentFlyer

I go out of the country about 10 times a year. I'm a US citizen, holding a US passport.

Majority of the time, I just hand the customs form to the officer and I'm out of the door, but here are some different experiences returning to our country.

About 02 or 03, coming back from a quick weekend trip to Manchester, UK, connecting in ORD. I did check a bag in MAN because at that time UK had some kind of terror alert and would not allow my carry on. Landed in ORD, walked through Immigration, and as I was waiting for my luggage by the carousel a CPB agent walked up and starting with small talk. Where did I come in from, what was the purpose of my trip, what do I do for living, etc?
I answered honestly. I found a super cheap fare from TPA-MAN for the weekend and decided to attend a ManU match. That was it, I left on Friday, came home on Sunday. I bragged about how lucky I was to score a great ticket at the Old Trafford, sitting right next to the team box and how I had Beckham, Sir Alex and Keane autograph my match program and I still had the ticket stub. She casually asked me to show her the match program and the ticket stub. I did, she thanked me, and wished me a safe flight home to Florida. (I classifiy this experience as a random pick)

Second time, I was coming home from Bangkok through Tokyo flying JAL to Honolulu before finally going home through Chicago.
This was a month long trip so I did have checked luggage plus I bought 2 framed pieces of original art in Bangkok which were boxed for me by the gallery. The flight was on a 747 totally filled with Japanese tourists and me the only caucasian on this particular flight between NRT-HNL. No problems with Immigration but as I was waiting for my luggage, I noticed the customs officers were checking me out as really stood out amongst the 350+ Japanese passengers. Sure enough, I was send to secondary as I was handing in my form. The agent opened every case I had and was very thourough going through my dirty clothes. At the same time she was asking same type of questions as the previous agent in ORD few years earlier. She was satisfied with my answers, she did not find anything illegal but she didn't know what was in the big box. I literally begged her not to open it because I would have been screwed with 2 3x4' framed and glassed art works. She took the box and had it x-rayed. She came back, thank me for being understanding and patient and wished me a safe flight home to Florida. (This one was probably because the agents were suspicious, something didn't seem right)

Third time, last year, coming home from Tokyo through Dallas. No checked luggage. Just a carry on and a laptop bag. Long line to hand in the customs forms in. As I walked up, the agent didn't even ask anything, just looked at the form and told me to go through the side door which turned out to be secondary customs. Waited for an hour in line, finally my turn. The secondary agent was an older, very experienced agent. He ran my passport through, was very impressed at the amount of international travel I did that year after all my itns came up on his computer which included Kabul, Afghanistan. We talked for few minutes, even shared a joke or two. He aplogized to me. Explained that the agent outside made a mistake sending me here that day. Made sure I had all my belongings, and wished me a safe journey to Florida. Never even looked at my stuff. (This was a purely random pick as well).

soccr

TSA: We're here, we'll peer, get used to it.

Government should stay out of our lives unless they don't want to, right? Same old squabble: government-defined &quot;national security&quot; vs. personal rights. I'm only surprised when people are surprised.