A federal court in the Eastern District of New York has ruled that US border agents cannot search mobile phones without a proper warrant. This decision applies to both American citizens and international visitors entering the region, including the highly visited city of New York.
The case originated from a 2022 incident at JFK Airport in New York, where border agents manually searched the phone of a man named Kurbonali Sultanov. Initially refusing, Sultanov eventually handed over the device after agents insisted. The phone was later more thoroughly searched with a warrant, but Sultanov filed a complaint, alleging that his rights were violated during the initial search.
Civil liberties organizations supported the motion. Scott Wilkens, senior counsel at the Knight First Amendment Institute, stated, “Warrantless searches of electronic devices at the border are an unwarranted intrusion into travelers’ private expressions, personal associations, and journalistic endeavors—activities protected by the First and Fourth Amendments.” However, the court did not dismiss the evidence, citing that the border agents acted in good faith.
The debate over whether border control agents can search electronic devices has been ongoing for years. In 2017, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of 11 individuals whose phones were searched at the border.
