Traveling Internationally? What to Know About Airport Phone Searches at the US Border

In the past few weeks, several U.S. citizens have shared their experiences being detained by Customs and Border Protection when reentering the country — and of having their cell phones searched in the process.

Attorney Amir Makled was held by CBP for hours when he landed at Detroit Metro Airport in Michigan after a family vacation in the Dominican Republic. Bachir Atallah, also a lawyer, told journalists that officials detained him and his wife without any explanation at the Vermont-Canadian border. In both accounts, the men said they reluctantly allowed CBP agents to look through their phones.

In another high-profile incident, the government of France said that a French scientist trying to enter the U.S. to attend a conference was denied entry after a CBP agent searched the man’s phone and found messages with colleagues and friends in which he expressed opinions on President Donald Trump’s administration and its research policy. In a post on X, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security denied the claim that his removal was based on political beliefs.

CBP officials have long searched the personal electronic devices — including phones, computers and cameras — of people at the U.S. border, which includes ports of entry like airports, land borders and sea ports. According to the agency, officials searched through more than 47,000 devices in 2024 alone. Although CBP characterizes the practice as rare, the agency’s own data shows that searches have increased consistently over the years.

There’s no data publicly available yet for searches during the second Trump administration, although CBP spokesperson Hilton Beckham rejected the idea that “CBP is searching more electronic media due to the administration change,” and insisted that “allegations that political beliefs trigger inspections or removals are baseless and irresponsible.”

But amid large-scale denials of visas to international students, detention of tourists to the U.S. and deportations of immigrants — and even some U.S. citizens — more people are feeling anxious about crossing into the United States in 2025.

Keep reading to learn more about how phone searches at the U.S. border work, what legal protections you have — and don’t have — when CBP officials ask to see your phone during international travel, and the possible consequences of refusing to comply with a search, especially for noncitizens.

Please bear in mind that the following is not legal advice, and advocates emphasize that you should always seek legal advice about your individual situation.

What gives CBP the power to look through my phone?

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution establishes that all individuals have the right to be secure “from unreasonable searches and seizure” in their person, homes, documentation, and belongings.

This means that if government officials — like your local police department or a federal agency — want to search your home as part of an investigation, they would need a warrant, usually provided by a judge. “But at the border, that changes,” said Tom McBrien, counsel at the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).

For decades, the federal government has argued that certain privacy protections should be waived in situations where national security may be at risk — and many courts have been receptive to this argument, McBrien said.

In circumstances away from the border, “the courts recognize that the interest in enforcing the laws is strong, but so are people’s rights to privacy,” he said. But at the border and other points of entry, like an airport, the courts have “accepted the idea that national security is so important that it’s kind of a thumb on the scale in favor of being able to search people.”

This national security exception is what lets officials at the border search through your personal belongings — but groups that advocate for privacy and civil liberties insist that this exception gives the government too much power.

“The traditional justification for letting government agents freely access people’s luggage isn’t really appropriate for looking at digital data,” said Sophia Cope, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “But the courts haven’t been fully convinced of that argument.”

What are the risks of refusing to comply with a CBP phone search?

If CBP wants to search your device, the Fifth Amendment allows citizens and noncitizens alike to “refuse to give them the password to unlock the phone or an account,” McBrien said. “And they can’t force you to do that until they get a warrant.”

But there are risks to this.

“U.S. citizens have the most leverage — not a ton — but the most to not comply” with a search, Cope said. While CBP agents can detain you for several hours or take your phone for an extended period of time, at some point, they have to let you back into the country as a citizen, she said.

But if you are in the U.S. with a green card or short-term visa — like a student or tourist visa — and you refuse to unlock your phone during a secondary inspection, CBP can block you from entering the U.S., even if you live here.

But even if you do comply with law enforcement, if CBP agents don’t like what they see on your phone — for whatever reason — they “can detain you, or just turn you around and force you to exit the country” if you’re a green card or visa holder, McBrien said.

He also noted that the March arrest of student activist and green card holder Mahmoud Khalil by USCIS has raised serious concerns among immigration advocates and legal scholars about how the federal government is attempting to deport permanent residents.

What kind of phone searches can CBP carry out — with or without a warrant?

‘Manual’ or ‘basic’ media searches

In a manual or basic media search, officials could be “grabbing your device, thumbing through it and looking for whatever they can find,” McBrien said. It can also include looking through your social media accounts.

According to CBP data, this is the most common type of search, representing over 90% of the searches registered in 2024.

A warrant is not required for this type of search, but CBP agents expect you to unlock your phone if this search takes place.

‘Forensic’ or ‘advanced’ media searches

In this instance, an officer will usually connect your phone to another device. “That essentially allows them to either download all the content to look through it, or directly type in search terms to more powerfully screen through the phone,” McBrien said.

In some instances, agents can perform a forensic or advanced media search without needing you to unlock your device.

CBP is also expected to follow certain rules around searches depending on where the port of entry, like an airport, is located. Travelers arriving at the U.S. border in California have additional protections because of a 2019 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — which presides over California, along with eight other western states — that agents can’t look in a device for anything other than “digital contraband.” (According to CBP, this could include child pornography, classified materials or export-controlled information).

This means that a CBP agent in California can “look in the photos app of a phone, emails, email or text message attachments,” said Cope, attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “But they can’t read the text messages. They can’t read emails. They can’t look at call logs, because call logs don’t have attachments.”

The Ninth Circuit court has also ruled that an advanced search “requires reasonable suspicion that the traveler is involved in some kind of illegal activity,” Cope said. And if officials don’t have reasonable suspicion to conduct an advanced search, “they’re going to have to get a warrant,” Cope said.

What about my social media activity?

In many instances, CBP agents can look at your public social media accounts if they gain access to your phone, which has led many online to worry they could face consequences for having posted social media content that is critical of the Trump administration.

It’s unclear if CBP is sharing the data its agents retrieve with other immigration agencies like U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which has publicly stated that it will begin screening the social media activity of noncitizens applying for an immigration status for “antisemitic activity.”

The Trump administration has already asked other government offices, like the Internal Revenue Service, for data to enforce its immigration agenda. “Searching or gathering information for one purpose and then using it for another … we see that as being very dangerous and inappropriate,” McBrien said.

When can CBP seize my device?

Device seizures can happen in a variety of situations, but one situation that McBrien has seen before is when CBP agents confiscate a locked phone from someone who has refused to share their password.

Even though citizens and noncitizens alike technically have the constitutional right to refuse to unlock their phones for CBP, agents could then seize your phone “and hold onto that for days, weeks, even months at that point,” he said.

McBrien added that you could be more vulnerable if you use facial recognition (like an iPhone’s Face ID) to unlock your phone, as legal precedent allows law enforcement to wave your phone in front of your face to unlock it.

If your device is seized, McBrien recommends asking officials for a receipt that includes the name and contact information of the federal agent you can call to keep up with the status of your device – essentially, “a paper trail so that you can prove that they have your device.” The American Civil Liberties Union also recommends you document the names of any officers you interact with, as well as their badge numbers and the name of the agency they work for.

What will you do if CBP asks to search your phone?

EFF’s comprehensive ‘Digital Privacy at the U.S. Border’ guide explains how to best protect your personal electronic data before, during and after passing through the U.S. border. But “everyone should have a plan before they leave on their trip,” Cope said.

Part of making that plan, she said, is knowing exactly what you will do and say if you are pulled into a secondary inspection — that is, if you are asked to step aside at the CBP checkpoint and follow another agent to a separate area, where you may be asked to unlock your phone. This is a key decision point, Cope said, “because there are consequences” depending on whether you choose to comply or not.

For many, their decision will depend on their immigration status in the U.S. and the very real risks of refusing to unlock their phone as a noncitizen.

You could also be steered by the type of data you have on your phone. Is it a work phone? Are you in a position to share it with law enforcement? And if CBP confiscates your phone, can you continue your job or daily functions without it?

If you plan to comply, remember that at that moment, it may be unclear how much of your personal information officers will try to access on your phone. This could be especially tricky if your phone contains sensitive or confidential information. For example, a doctor may have data about their patients or a lawyer about their clients,  as was the case with attorneys Amir Makled and Bachir Atallah, whose phones contained privileged client information when CBP searched them.

And if you refuse to provide your password, remember that officials can still seize your phone.

What do experts and advocates recommend for travelers entering the U.S. right now?

Being detained, denied entry to the U.S., or having confidential information on your phone seized: If these worst-case scenarios are “something that you’re unwilling to risk, then you should think about mitigation measures,” McBrien said.

Leaving personal devices at home is one way to avoid these interactions with law enforcement altogether. But if bringing your cell phone or laptop is essential, McBrien said — as it is for many travelers — you can also “look into ways to protect the data that is on those devices, both by taking sensitive information off the device or storing it somewhere else,” McBrien said. If you plan to travel with a device provided to you by your employer, EFF recommends talking to your employer about data security before traveling.

Cope has seen people travel with a “burner phone” — a phone you only use when travelling that doesn’t carry any personal or significant information. “But that also might raise questions,” she said. “‘What are you trying to hide?’ ‘Why isn’t this your real phone?’ So people need to be ready for that conversation.”

Regardless of whether you choose to comply with a phone search, Cope recommended backing up your data — to the cloud or another way — before you encounter CBP.

“If you do comply, the data might get corrupted if they try to do a forensic search,” she said. “If you don’t comply, then maybe you will lose that data if your device is confiscated.”

If you’re worried about losing your phone at the border to a seizure, consider bringing several emergency contact numbers written in a notebook or similar, so that you can contact loved ones — or an immigration lawyer — without having access to your phone’s contact list.

McBrien also said it’s “a really good idea for people to have friends and family know when they are planning on crossing a border or coming into an airport — so that if they’re not heard from quickly, people in their lives are aware and can reach out to someone for help.”

Ultimately, any plan you make has to address concerns specific to your specific legal status and what type of information you carry with you, Cope said. “What’s important to understand is that one size doesn’t fit all.”

More reading and resources

Read more about digital privacy protections at the border in EFF’s guide.

KQED has a guide on how to find free or low-cost legal aid in the Bay Area, including those who provide immigration services. Keep in mind that many of these groups have limited resources and may not be able to provide assistance immediately.

The Bar Association in San Francisco keeps a database of private immigration lawyers in San Francisco and Marin counties and refers those living elsewhere to LRS Connect, a nonprofit search tool set up to connect individuals with lawyers specific to their needs.