Cellphone searches on return to US by customs?

Providing reliable sources might help. Everything else is speculation and hearsay.

Not having any specifics, I’ll add that when entering or leaving any country, any person can be pulled aside for a secondary inspection if immigration thinks something isn’t quite right. At that time phones, computers, etc. could be looked at. Of course different countries have different laws. This isn’t anything new.

Pardon I am not seeing first person accounts at the moment, the other day there were a couple on social media feed.

A quick search yields this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/legal/s/mDF23myqHb

https://businesstravelerusa.com/news/cbp-inspects-devices-airport/

https://www.newsweek.com/border-patrol-checking-phones-social-media-messages-us-immigration-2048147

https://www.reddit.com/r/DACA/s/V3he7W3fG4

From the CBP website:

“All travelers crossing the United States border are subject to CBP inspection. On rare occasions, CBP officers may search a traveler’s mobile phone, computer, camera, or other electronic devices during the inspection process. These searches have been used to identify and combat terrorist activity, child pornography, drug smuggling, human smuggling, bulk cash smuggling, human trafficking, export control violations, intellectual property rights violations and visa fraud, among other violations. …”

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/cbp-search-authority/border-search-electronic-devices

As previously stated, this isn’t anything new and can happen when entering or leaving any country.

• About a year ago, myself and quite a few others were detained, our luggage searched, questioned, and required to show passports at the Frankfurt airport. I was arriving from another Schengen country.
• About ten years ago I was getting detained and questioned every 3rd time I entered the US. I got Global Entry and it stopped.
• I was detained and interviewed for hours in Tel Aviv not too many years ago.
• A few years back I entered Mexico on foot with no passport. Trying to return to the US the immigration guys laughed at me and let me in with my Global Entry card ... not technically legal.
• My son was denied entry into Canada because when asked if he had ever committed a crime he confessed to drinking under age 12 years earlier .... and throwing up on a police officers foot before being taken to the drunk tank to sleep it off. A Justice of the Peace misdemenior. There was never a record recorded with the State.
• I had a secondary inspection after passport control when leaving a non Schengen country in January. Had to show my passport again because I was a male.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trump-immigration-detained-visitors-border-search-device-visa-passport-rcna197736

Excerpt:

Such searches pre-date the new Trump administration, and Customs and Border Protection says it conducts them to detect “digital contraband, terrorism-related content, and information relevant to visitor admissibility.”
“Claims that CBP is searching more electronic media due to administration change are false,” CBP Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham told NBC News in an emailed statement.
“Allegations that political beliefs trigger inspections or removals are baseless and irresponsible,” he added.

Up until this past January, these searches have been "almost
negligible," according to Susanne Heubel, senior counsel at New
York-based immigration law firm Harter Secrest & Emery LLP. "I travel
a lot, I have clients who travel a lot, of all sorts of nationalities
and visa statuses, and nobody has ever complained about these searches
until now," she said.

According to Heubel, the officers are checking to ensure the claim
you're making about who you are and your visa status are true, so if
you're on a tourist visa but there's suspicion that you may be working
while in the U.S. From a national security perspective, they're also
seeing if there is any criminal data or activity on your devices.

However, recent cases have brought to light that public activity
relating to free speech, like social media posts on political issues,
are now being subject to searches and subsequent visa issues. "In some
ways, they might be, but there's also another rule where if you show
any indication that your conduct could be contrary to the interests of
the United States in terms of security and foreign policy, a lot of
this is sort of being mixed together right now," Heubel said. "People
who are very loud and open about their opinions here are starting to
get in trouble," she added. "Now we're starting to see what I would
call really, not an assault, but an infringement on what I think every
normal person would call free speech."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2025/03/21/border-control-phone-search/82594653007/

As you can see on this forum, opinions differ. Some are saying nothing has changed and they strongly believe that. Others-- such as the above quoted immigration attorney-- say otherwise. Are there just a few incidents or is it more troubling?

Personally I'm concerned that more people aren't concerned at the erosion of norms myself. With that said, I'm not planning on scrubbing my phone when I cross the border...yet.

Happy travels.

...These seem like different times...

CBP has had the authority to conduct warrentless searchs of anyone and anything entering the country for at least 30 plus years. But they rarely conduct them. However, if you have concerns about content on your device, don't take the device. If you must take it, and don't want others to see it, take it off the device. Personally, I've never had anything on any of my devices that could even remotely be a problem. But then, I've never been one to trust the "security" on any device, and prefer to keep my opinions to myself.

Either the Washington Post or NY Times had an article on cleaning up devices this past week.

Of the four examples the OP linked, 2 were for non-citizens, the first link was a friend of the poster on a website but no details if they were looking for drugs or what, and the last article was about rights when entering US territories, not the mainland. So this really didn’t show a trend, in my opinion, though there have been some cases that have been on front pages but nothing with citizens.

About ten years ago I was getting detained and questioned every 3rd time I entered the US. I got Global Entry and it stopped.

Same experience for me, same time frame, roughly 10 to 15 years ago, but I got held up upon most US returns. My adult nephew shares my name, and I found out from my brother that he was having the same problem. After I got Global Entry in 2016, it all stopped.

On one final US return pre GE, the passport control officer asked me if I had ever lived in New York. I said no, he got very busy typing, and about a minute later he said "you are good to go, that should clear things up for you". I then assumed someone with my name was on a watch list, who knows? But knock on wood, since that passport control officer did that, followed soon thereafter by GE approval, I have never had any questions asked upon return to the US. I believe it is the GE that is the key.

Honestly, it doesn't seem realistic in the slightest for the average US citizen to worry about this. Think of the backup at passport control if they started searching everyone's phones. Try to imagine the scenario of each border control officer having to make everyone passing through unlock and hand over their phones so they can look through what's on them. Even if they wanted to look at everyone's device, I can't imagine they have the staffing for such at thing.

I'm not saying something won't pop up like in the examples given up thread. Those kinds of things have been happening long before this administration. I myself, absolutely squeaky clean, have had the dreaded SSSS on my boarding pass more than once that led to a thorough search and wipedown, and that was after I'd had TSA Precheck for more than a year.

If I were an activitst or otherwise very publicly outspoken I'd probably clean up my phone before going through passport control. But otherwise I don't think average US citizens have anything to worry about. Yet.

First they come for the activists; then they come for you.

Since my only social media is this forum I am not worried about what a search of my electronics might turn up. And I would think that travelling with a burner phone would raise red flags.

Luckily Musk has fired everyone working for the Government so, fill yer boots.

Well, I'm grateful for the thoughtful responses and information. Mostly approaching this issue from a practical-traveler perspective, re: upcoming trip in a few weeks. Thanks. Safe/happy travels

Quite often, most of the people stopped are either expected through the sharing of intelligence from other countries or certain red flags that are given off.

I'm always amazed that when I enter the US, I walk by the customs officers and they don't even look at me. Their eyes are on baggage claim. They know who they are looking for.

I'll be returning next week and I don't expect anything different. (Except that I'll be arriving at a different airport than I usually do.)

As a practical matter learn to delete your search and browser history. That is my start and I will do it before entry back to US. You never know about a search now nor the interpretation of anything found. Perhaps even as innocuous as posting on this forum. Maybe simply posting to this thread could be interpreted in a fashion you thought impossible.

I haven't heard of a single instance that did not involve an accusation of the violation of one of the rules of entry. Maybe, maybe, more of those who are violating the terms of entry are getting caught, but I doubt it. If there were MORE searches at immigration, that would be news. It isn't.

Re: returning to the US and being "detained" by US Border Control.....pre-pandemic and currently, ie summer 2023 and summer 2024, the simple answer is never.

My return airport from Europe is 99% SFO, if not SFO, then OAK., if that makes a difference.

On cellphone searches upon reentry here....never. If asked to see my cellphone, I have no problems with that turning it over to these Border types , no concerns with privacy and all that. It's their time they are wasting.

On the topic of the SSSS: after 27 trips ....never. I won't happen either.

Even in Europe the experience of being detained, told to step aside, arr/dep, has never been my personal airport experience .

You have a blessed life Fred. I am starting to lose count its happened so often.

My two favorite airport stories is from the 1980's

I went on a hunting trip and immediately after the morning hunt went to the San Antonio airport to fly out. Forgot the ammo in my coat pocket. They conficscated it. No detention, no complaint, no issue, just "we will keep that for you". A week later another hunt this time my father and my brother with me. My father arrived first at the airport and picked up his luggage then went to the gate area to meet my brother's flight ............ forgetting a gun was in the luggage. I had to bail them both out. Actually an apology was all that was necessary.

My how the world has changed.

Customs Border Patrol stopped me in Houston one time on a return flight from Cancun Mexico because I had a red track jacket with a Cuban flag on it and one small carry on bag for ten days of travel. It was funny as they rifled my little bag all they kept finding was dirty underwear.

Forgot a gun was in the luggage.

Upon departing Austin-Bergstrom Airport at the end of a business trip in early December 2024 I passed a “Do not bring your firearm through the checkpoint” sign in the security lineup with an image of a handgun inside a red circle with a slash through it. At the Hotel entrance a sign on the door read something to the effect of “ Only registered guests are permitted to openly carry handguns in this Hotel”.

Both quite interesting from a Canadian perspective.

as they rifled my little bag all they kept finding was dirty underwear

So, Jazz+Travels, you’re not an international underwear smuggler by any chance, are you? ;)

I wonder, if border security wants to scroll thru my phone, do I have to provide them my passcode? Or would they let me enter it without them seeing the code? That’s one of the most private things there is anymore. Or do they have methods to break into any cyber thing, and rifle thru it for as long as they want, maybe finding insignificant things that even I don’t know is there, or how to bring it up? What if they find that I’ve posted sometimes on the Rick Steves Travel Forum?!?!? <8-0