WASHINGTON — Nabila Mango, a therapist and a U.S. citizen, had just flown in from Jordan in December when, she said, she was detained at customs and her cellphone was taken from her purse. After her phone was returned, Mango saw that its records of calls had been erased.
A few months earlier in the same airport, a tech engineer was asked to type his password into his laptop.
“This laptop doesn’t belong to me,” he remembers protesting. “It belongs to my company.”
Eventually, he agreed to log on and stood by as an officer copied the websites he had visited, said the engineer, a U.S. citizen who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of calling attention to himself.
Maria Udy, a marketing executive with a global travel-management firm, said her company laptop was seized by a federal agent as she was flying out of Dulles airport to head home to London.
“I was basically given the option of handing over my laptop or not getting on that flight,” she said.
The seizure of electronics at U.S. borders has prompted protests from travelers who say they now weigh the risk of traveling with sensitive or personal information on their laptops, cameras or cellphones. In some cases, companies have altered their policies to require employees to safeguard corporate secrets by clearing laptop hard drives prior to international travel.
Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Asian Law Caucus, two civil-liberties groups in San Francisco, are filing a lawsuit to force the government to disclose its policies on border searches, including what rules govern the seizing and copying of the contents of electronic devices.
The lawsuit was inspired by some two dozen cases, 15 of which involved searches of cellphones, laptops, MP3 players and other electronics. Almost all involved travelers of Muslim, Middle Eastern or South Asian background.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman, Lynn Hollinger, said customs officers do not engage in racial profiling “in any way, shape or form.”
“I was assured that my laptop would be given back to me in 10 or 15 days,” said Udy. More than a year later, Udy has received neither her laptop nor an explanation.
