I’m a Journalist but I Didn’t Fully Realize the Terrible Power of U.S. Border Officials Until They Violated My Rights and Privacy

submitted by Optimus85 from (theintercept.com)

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[–]Scoobiedoo 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

I am very much against governments abuse of power however, nothing I read in that journalist's account was on the level of severe abuse. He was disrespectful and uncooperative to the customs agents and he even tried to escape several times while being detained:

"I wasn’t allowed to leave the Homeland Security zone, either. I know because I tried to sort of wander out a couple of times and got yelled at."

You give up rights when crossing international borders. I believe there should be more rights for people who cross borders but the journalist was detained for several hours since he had pictures of war zones on his phone and he was doing stories on Mexican cartels which he didn't disclose until they discovered it in his files later in the interview which coupled with his bad attitude made him very suspicious to customs agents. He created most of these problems for himself. Keep in mind, this is his version of the events and just what he admits to. He was not jailed, he was not hit, he didn't have guns pointed at him, he had nothing stolen or confiscated. All in all, really not that big a deal.

[–]Optimus85[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I agree with you on the journalist being a bit of a pretentious twat and antagonizing the border guards. However, my main beef is with the overreach of authority and having one's personal and intimate information being accessed by a government agency. So he had pictures of horrific events; he's a journalist. Moreover, why and how was he deemed a threat? He's American, speaks perfect English and obviously had proper identification. Border agents most certainly had access to his criminal record, if any. He should've been cleared in a matter of minutes.

[–]Scoobiedoo 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Thing is, anyone can be a smuggler/drug mule, a covert agent of a cartel or a wack-job who converts to a member of Isis. Once you lie or don't disclose relevant information to customs officials you are in for a bad time. I have had my share of run-ins with overzealous customs agents and it isn't fun. They can keep you detained for hours, go through anything you bring into the country, do body-cavity searches and go over any public or government information they have on you. There should be more laws in place to protect people's rights and private papers but if you know this an issue you can just keep information you want private, yet accessible, in the cloud and don't take anything you don't feel comfortable government agents reviewing on your person when traveling outside of the country. This guy got off lightly compared to what they can do legally. Most customs agents are just doing their job but some get off on the power trip. There should be recourse for those who abuse their power but given the circumstances of this particular example I think customs was not that far out of line given the journalist's behavior.