A WSJ reporter who covers the Middle East had a very "troubling" close-encounter with the US police superstate.
Maria Abi-Habib was detained by federal agents at Los Angeles International Airport, who demanded to confiscate her two cell phones, and was shocked to learn that border agents have the authority to do that. The reporter has both U.S. and Lebanese citizenship and was traveling on an American passport. She was flying into Los Angeles from Beirut last Thursday when she taken out of line at immigration.
"They grilled me for an hour," she wrote. "I answered jovially, because I've had enough high-level security experiences to know that being annoyed or hostile will work against you." Abi-Habib said that the agents then asked for her cellphones in order to "collect information."
"That is where I drew the line," Abi-Habib wrote. "I told her I had First Amendment rights as a journalist she couldn't violate and I was protected under."
According to Abi-Habib, the agent then presented a DHS document which explained that the government has the right to confiscate phones within 100 miles from U.S. borders: the document "basically says the US government has the right to seize my phones and my rights as a US citizen (or citizen of the world) go out the window."
She posted a photo of this tearsheet on the Facebook post. The same document is also available on the website of the US Customs and Border Patrol and can be found at the following link. The key section is the following:
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