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Aug 27 2009
DHS Issues Directive on Electronic Media Searches at U.S. Ports of Entry
Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today that the agency will begin new directives to “enhance and clarify” oversight for searches conducted on computers and other forms of digital media at U.S. ports of entry.
This new directive details the circumstances in which DHS agencies (CBP, ICE) can conduct searches of electronic media at ports of entry; these circumstances are similar to the justifications for searching other “sensitive” material, such as briefcases, backpacks and notebooks.
“Keeping Americans safe in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully screen materials entering the United States,” said Napolitano. “The new directives announced today strike the balance between respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all travelers while ensuring DHS can take the lawful actions necessary to secure our borders.”
This directive, promoted today by DHS, comes just one day after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the agency, asking for clarification of its search policy and the impact that policy has had on the civil liberties of travelers at U.S. ports of entry over the past year. This is the ACLU’s second request for information; it’s first occurred in June of this year.
ACLUE has commented that current policy allows for government agents to read information on travelers’ laptops and other digital media, without any particular and individualized suspicion. This includes information such as personal financial data, photographs and web browsing history.
The new DHS directive, according to DHS, will “ensure training materials and procedures promote fair and consistent enforcement of the law relating to electronic media searches.” Travelers that are being searched will also now receive material that lets them know the reasons for the search, how the data discovered might be used and additional information about the traveler’s constitutional and statutory rights.
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