Many of you will be crossing the U.S. border soon because of travel to the Tor Meeting. I was supposed to be there, but child care obligations will keep me stateside.
As an immigration lawyer and a member of the Tor community, I would like to give you all a crash course in crossing the U.S. border.
This document does not discuss anything related to seeking asylum or other refugee status. If you hold or may seek refugee status of any kind, seek professional help.
== If you are not a U.S. citizen == If you have permanent resident status, have a visa or are a national of a country that is part of the Visa Waiver Program [fn:1], when you present yourself to an immigration officer at the border the officer evaluates whether you are inadmissible under any of the many grounds in section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. [fn:2] Having a travel document does not guarantee you entry. All people who are not U.S. citizens are subject to the entire slate of grounds of inadmissibility, including long-time permanent residents.
If the official finds that you are inadmissible, you will be denied entry and detained pending your removal. Some people, like permanent residents, will be detained for weeks until they can see an immigration judge to receive a hearing on their inadmissibility.
The agent will likely ask you questions about who you are and where you are going. You have a right under the United States constitution to refuse to answer questions, but if you refuse to answer the officer will surely deny you entry and will likely detain you for further questioning.
Immigration officers have wide latitude to question you and deny you entry. You have little legal recourse against this. Read the grounds of inadmissibility [fn:1] and you will see the many ways you can be lawfully denied entry, even as a permanent resident.
If you have ever been arrested or otherwise feel that you may be singled out, contact me or another immigration lawyer before you intend to cross the border.
== If you are a U.S. citizen == The government has to let you in. They can, however, detain you for questioning and search you and your property.
== For everyone: border searches == At the U.S. border, immigration officers may search you basically for any reason, or no reason. They do not have to articulate any suspicion.
They can, and do routinely, go through all your property, including your devices. They can clone your hard drive. They can attach forensic tools to your phone or other device. They can seize your item as evidence against you. You can not do anything to stop this.
The one things you can do is refuse to give passwords. You have a constitutional right to remain silent that is fairly strong here. If you are a U.S. citizen, they have no recourse except to detain, question, and intimidate you further. They cannot detain you for an unreasonable amount of time, measured by what an imaginary "objective reasonable person" would think is reasonable. This amount of time will be longer than you personally think is reasonable.
If you are a non-citizen, they could deny you entry for your refusal.
If you are stopped and your device is searched or you are asked for passwords, contact me.
== About me == I am a relay operator, a lawyer, and partner to Alison. I am in IRC at @frabyn.
My practice is criminal defense and immigration in Texas. My website is https://bynumlaw.net/
* Footnotes
[fn:1] https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/visit/visa-waiver-program.html
[fn:2] https://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-29/0-0-0-2006...