Telephone searches at the US border reached a high record
US custom And border guards have extensive authority to search for a phone call when entering the country – including American citizens. Newly released figures show that over the past three months, CBP officials have been searching for other phones and devices more than ever before.
From April to June this year, CBP searched for 14,899 units carried by international travelers, according to statistics released on the Agency’s website. While the figures are not broken by the type of device, CBP is capable of searching for phones, computers, cameras and other electronics. April and June are at the top of the highest number of at least 12,766 units, which are searched by CBP officials from January to March 2022 and 16.7 %.
Increasing the search for telephone and device at the border while Trump’s second government is conducting aggressive measures to immigrate, with the widespread increase in budget for the Ministry of Security and Immigration and Customs and thousands of detention. Since the beginning of the year, people traveling to the United States have reported long arrests, searching for annoying phones and are said to have been denied entry because of content on their devices. In recent months, some European travelers have canceled trips to the United States, while the number of Canadian visitors to the United States has declined for seven consecutive months.
“The real issue is the impact of frostbite on all travelers,” says Eisha Bamari, deputy director of the US Civil Freedom Union. Bhandari adds: Anyone can be searching for a potential device, including those who are important to the government or lawyers and journalists who may have sensitive information about their devices. “This is essentially a limitless authority that they search for themselves to search for travelers without a verdict to search for the full domain of information that people have in it,” Bamari says.
CBP data shows that over the past decade, over the past decade, over the past decade, telephone and electronic searches have existed. According to the Agency statistics, which was used in 2015 using the fiscal year from October to September. By 2018, that figure had increased to 33.296 search search, and the last year of existing data was fiscal year 2024, 46,362.
The latest quarterly statistics for the last three months of 2025 show 13,824 “basic” searches and 1.075 “advanced” searches. Basic searches can include a manual border factor via personal phone and inspection of its content. This means that a factor may be able to find information about a device, but it may not have the time and ability to conduct a deep inspection of what is included in the messages or buried in the photo pulley. Meanwhile, advanced searches include a much more disturbing approach: connecting forensic instruments to the device for massive data re -extraction. Despite the overall search of the device, the number of advanced searches has remained relatively stable over the past 21 months.
CBP did not immediately respond to Wired request for comment. “The number of passengers crossing the border that experience the border search of their electronic devices is small,” says CBP web pages. It is said that last year when data is available, “less than 0.01 percent” international travelers have searched for their devices.
Anyone who enters the United States – from citizens to temporary visa holders – can potentially have their phone or electronics searched by CBP employees. Throughout the country, border areas are usually outside the support of the fourth amendment that requires guarantees to search for devices by authorities. CBP says on its website that people must provide their devices “in the case of the device and its content. In short, this means unlocking the password to the border agents.
If a US citizen or green card holder refuses to search, at least in theory they cannot deny entering the country. However, their devices may be temporarily seized, and can be exposed to additional questions. Foreign visitors can face arrests or exile because of their refusal to search.
While advanced searches have made up only a small percentage of telephone searches in recent years, with Trump’s second government progress, it can be changed. As wired in the early days of July, customs and borders are preparing advanced digital forensic medicine tools for data processing from electronic devices. CBP currently has several contracts for forensic tools from Cellebrite.
In the information request, released in June and updated in July, CBP said he was looking for more tools that could process data from travel devices and help border delegates understand it. In one example, the ability to “search for a list of text messages to find” hidden language “in suspected communications is mentioned that may not be obvious at first glance.
